itibrarp  of  the  theological  ^eminarjp 

PRINCETON  •  NEW  JERSEY 

*3@I> 

PRESENTED  BY 

The  Estate  of 
Victor  H.  Lukens 

^CC03 

.G-45 


yL^C-i. 


THE  FAITH  THAT  OVERCOMES 

THE  WORLD 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK  •  BOSTON  •  CHICAGO  •  DALLAS 
ATLANTA  •  SAN  FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Limited 

LONDON  •  BOMBAY  *  CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  Ltd. 

TORONTO 


MAH  23  19 


THE  FAITH  THAT 


ws/tiAi  si: 


OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 


Studies  in  the  Way  to 

the  Higher  Knowledge,  Healing  and  Mastery  of  Life 
Supplemented  by  Exercises  for  Practical  Application. 


BY 

v/ 

THE  REV.  VAN  RENSSELAER  GIBSON,  A.  B. 


(Columbia) 


Lecturer  and  Director  of 
The  Episcopal  Progressive  Thought  Movement. 

Author  of  “Life  Pamphlets” 

Formerly  Rector  of  Christ  Church,  Pittsford,  N.  Y. 
and  onetime  Minister-in-Charge  of  St.  John’*,  Yonkers,  N.  Y. 


NVm  |}iirk 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

1923 

All  rights  reserved 


PRINTED  IK  TUB  UNITED  STATES  OP  AMERICA 


Copyright,  1923, 

By  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY, 

Set  up  and  printed.  Published  February,  1923 


TO  THE  BELOVED  MEMORY  OF 
DEAR  ONES  WHO  HAVE  PASSED  BEHIND  THE  VEIL 
THIS  BOOK  IS  AFFECTIONATELY  DEDICATED. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2019  with  funding  from 
Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


https://archive.org/details/faiththatovercomOOgibs 


PREFACE 


This  volume  contains  a  series  of  simple  compact 
studies  in  deep  truths  for  practical  application.  It  is 
intended  as  a  contribution  to  the  coming  spiritual 
philosophy  of  life,  involving  a  new  synthesis  of 
Religion,  Philosophy,  and  Science,  in  the  last  analysis, 
identical  with  fundamental  Christianity,  which  alone 
can  produce  humanity’s  transformation.  It  covers,  in 
a  general  way,  the  subjects  designated  in  the  Pro¬ 
gressive  Thought  Announcement,  emphasizes  the  new 
spiritual  psychology,  and  is  designed  to  aid  thinking 
men  and  women  in  attaining  to  the  higher  knowledge, 
healing  and  mastery  of  life.  A  special  effort  is  made 
to  reconcile  the  positions  of  apparently  opposing 
groups.  While  it  is  calculated  to  stimulate  advanced 
students,  it  is  hoped  that  its  approach  will  prove 
especially  helpful  to  Church  people  seeking  to  further 
vitalize  their  faith  through  a  fresh  hold  on  the  eternal 
realities,  and  to  those  who  are  grouping  their  way  out 
of  the  darkness  of  materialistic  systems  of  thought 
into  the  light  of  spiritual  Truth. 

VAN  R.  G. 

September  30,  1922. 


% 


QUOTATIONS 


"Faith  is  the  evidence  of  things  not  seen” 

"Who  through  faith  subdued  Kingdoms,  wrought  righteousness, 
stopped  the  mouths  of  lions,  out  of  weakness  were  made 
strong.” 

"This  is  the  victory  that  overcometh  the  world,  even  our  faith.” 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 

I. 

General  Introduction  .... 

PAGE 

I 

The  Higher  Knowledge  and  the  Great  Awakening. 

II. 

Overcoming  Fear . 

.  16 

III. 

Overcoming  Ignorance  .... 

.  24 

IV. 

Overcoming  Failure . 

•  36 

V. 

Overcoming  Sin . 

•  45 

VI. 

Overcoming  Sickness . 

•  56 

VII. 

Overcoming  Death . 

.  91 

VIII. 

Conclusion . 

.  107 

THE  FAITH  THAT  OVERCOMES 

THE  WORLD 


CHAPTER  I 
General  Introduction 

The  Higher  Knowledge  and  the  Great  Awakening 

To  those  who  have  eyes  to  see,  it  is  becoming  increas¬ 
ingly  clear  that  we  are  on  the  verge  of  an  astounding 
and  unprecedented  spiritual  awakening.  On  every 
hand,  we  are  witnessing  the  unmistakable  signs  of  an 
undercurrent  of  gathering  spiritual  forces  rising  in 
revolt  against  the  outworn  thought  and  life  of  the 
past  age. 

The  prevailing  thought  and  life  of  the  past  era  has 
been  grossly  materialistic.  In  scientific  circles,  the 
Universe  has  been  explained  largely  in  terms  of 
mechanical  forces  born  of  a  fortuitous  concourse  of 
atoms,  and  the  mind  of  man  as  the  product  of  the 
chemical  activity  of  brain  cells.  This  materialistic 
thought  has  of  necessity  effected  profoundly  the  life 
of  the  age.  If  men  conceive  of  the  Universe  as  com¬ 
posed  of  material  atoms,  governed  by  mechanical  laws, 
with  no  spiritual  force  or  intelligent  and  beneficent 
purpose  behind  them,  naturally  the  tendency  is  to  live 

on  a  material  basis  for  material  ends,  for,  “As  a  man 

l 


2 


FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 


thinketh  in  his  heart,  so  is  he.”  Therefore  have  men 
and  nations  trampled  each  other  under  foot  in  the 
frenzied  struggle  for  the  accumulation  of  material 
possessions  for  selfish  indulgence,  in  accord  with  the 
law  of  the  jungle.  It  is  true  that  the  world’s  life  in 
the  past  era  has  not  been  without  some  signs  of  spir¬ 
itual  advance,  as  witnessed  in  a  slowly  growing  social 
conscience,  and  in  a  vague  aspiration  for  human 
brotherhood,  however  poorly  realized.  Nevertheless 
materialism  as  a  philosophy  and  as  a  life  has  been 
decidedly  in  the  ascendency.  As  a  race,  we  have  had 
but  the  faintest  consciousness  of  spiritual  ends,  attain¬ 
able  by  spiritual  laws  and  forces. 

Now  a  wonderful  change  is  at  hand.  Our  material¬ 
istic  philosophies  have  proved  unreasonable  and  inade¬ 
quate,  and  our  materialistic  life  futile  and  self-destruc¬ 
tive.  With  the  crumbling  of  material  philosophies 
and  institutions,  men  are  being  thrown  back  on  the 
eternal  spiritual  realities.  Beneath  the  surface  con¬ 
ditions,  where  the  old  order  of  things  seems  to  be 
rampant  and  where  chaos  and  bewilderment  are  every¬ 
where  rife,  the  penetrating  eye  may  discern  spiritual 
forces  operating  and  moving  to  sure  ends  in  the 
process  of  bringing  to  birth  a  new  order  of  things, 
in  which  the  things  of  the  Spirit  shall  reign  supreme. 

We  are  unquestionably  at  the  dawn  of  an  era  of  a 
great  synthesis,  in  which  all  the  strands  of  knowledge 
acquired  in  the  various  fields  of  inquiry  and  experi¬ 
ence  will  be  brought  together  and  woven  into  a  univer¬ 
sal  and  really  practical,  spiritual  and  scientific  phil¬ 
osophy  of  life.  This  living  and  universal  system  shall 
be  found  to  be  identical  with  fundamental  religion. 


GENERAL  INSTRUCTION 


3 


In  this  comprehensive  system,  a  far  greater  place  will 
be  accorded  to  the  preeminently  important  realm  of 
mind. 

We  may  trace  the  early  beginnings  of  this  con¬ 
sciousness  of  the  supremacy  of  the  things  of  the  mind 
back  to  the  lofty  philosophers  of  old,  Anaxagoras, 
Socrates  and  Plato,  through  the  careers  of  all  the 
great  spiritual  seers  of  later  ages,  especially  in  the  East, 
by  no  means  omitting  the  profounder  teachings  of 
Jesus  Christ.  Even  in  the  dark  ages,  when  indeed  the 
current  religion,  although  supremely  spiritual  in  its 
original  purity,  became  impregnated  with  materialistic 
thought,  there  were  ever  keen  minds  and  mystic  souls 
here  and  there  who  bore  witness  to  the  supremacy  of 
these  higher  things.  Gradually  the  light  was  rekindled. 
With  the  advent  of  the  Transcendentalists  came  the 
dawn  of  a  new  realization  of  the  place  and  power  of 
the  Idea  and  Ideal,  as  opposed  to  mere  things,  surface 
phenomena,  and  externals  generally.  Carlyle  caught 
the  spirit  of  the  New  Idealism,  and  became  a  prophet 
of  the  same.  In  America,  the  mantle  fell  upon  Emer¬ 
son,  who  declared  that,  “Things  are  in  the  saddle  and 
rule  mankind,”  and  joined  the  company  of  inspired 
and  mighty  prophets  of  Idealism.  Walt  Whitman, 
a  man  of  kindred  spirit,  is  numbered  among  these 
prophets  who  are  coming  into  their  own  today  as 
never  before,  outstanding  lights  among  the  inspira¬ 
tional  teachers  who  have  witnessed  to  the  undreamed¬ 
of  potentialities  within  the  mind  and  spirit  of  man. 

Men  are  beginning  to  understand  the  power  of  the 
Idea  and  the  Ideal,  and  that  the  whole  realm  in  which 


4 


FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 


they  operate  is  essentially  a  spiritual  domain,  intimately 
related  to  religion.  Consequently  there  is  an  ever 
increasing  understanding  of  the  affinity  of  these  forces 
and  laws  of  the  mind  with  the  principles  enunciated 
by  the  Christ.  We  are  beginning  to  realize  that  here 
we  are  in  a  realm  of  transcendent  law,  holding  in 
store  for  mankind  the  most  incredible  possibilities 
of  dominion  over  himself  and  over  the  earth.  We  are 
coming  to  see  that  prayer  and  faith  are  dynamic  forces 
which  can  mould  and  shape  the  external  structure  of 
our  civilization.  We  are  beginning  to  think  more 
profoundly,  that  we  may  learn  to  consciously  and 
intelligently  direct  these  forces.  No  longer  is  there  a 
lack  of  interest,  among  thinking  men,  in  matters  per¬ 
taining  to  a  rational  and  profound  theology,  related 
to  philosophy,  science  and  life.  With  the  failure  of 
the  old  order  and  disappointment  in  the  search  for 
true  happiness  and  attainment,  men  are  everywhere 
seeking  the  key  to  the  real  solution  of  the  world’s 
problems.  While  our  main  purpose  in  the  present 
work  is  to  point  out  how  faith  may  be  applied  to  the 
immediate  problems  of  every-day  life,  at  the  same 
time  we  shall  endeavor  to  point  out  the  inspiring  truth 
that  ultimately  the  full  application  of  these  principles 
shall  change  the  whole  course  of  human  life  and 
transform  the  race. 

We  have  stated  that  the  coming  philosophy  of  life 
is  to  be  a  thoroughly  spiritual  one.  Indeed,  there  will 
no  longer  be  the  outworn  distinction  between  the 
spiritual  and  the  material,  which  a  slowly  passing  phase 
of  man’s  consciousness  has  necessitated  in  the  past. 


GENERAL  INSTRUCTION 


5 


The  term  “spiritual”  applies  to  a  higher  and  truer  way 
of  viewing  and  living  all  of  life.  It  results  from  the 
achievement  of  seeing  life  whole;  from  seeing  the 
visible  world  about  us  as  a  very  limited  expression 
of  a  vast  unseen  universe,  the  underlying  forces  of 
which  are  akin  to  and  intimately  related  to  the  things 
which  pertain  to  the  mind  and  spirit  of  man.  The 
spiritual  mind  looks  upon  the  universe  as  the  product 
of  a  Universal  Mind  or  Spirit  working  to  a  great  pur¬ 
pose  of  love  and  perfection.  It  regards  faith  and 
devotion,  and  what  we  call  ideals  generally,  as  essenti¬ 
ally  an  expression  of  the  workings  of  that  Mind. 
Paul  of  Tarsus  has  given  us  a  sublime  statement  of 
this  consciousness  which  holds  the  promise  of  all  real 
progress,  in  these  words,  “The  things  which  are  seen 
are  temporal,  but  the  things  which  are  not  seen  are 
eternal.”  This  view,  rightly  understood,  does  not  be¬ 
little  the  things  of  the  material  world,  but  rather 
glorifies  them.  In  a  world  in  which  Spirit  is  express¬ 
ing  itself  on  the  visible  plane  of  existence,  we  must 
adjust  ourselves  to  a  material  environment.  There 
is  no  excuse  for  holding  oneself  aloof  from  the  world’s 
work,  for  there  is  the  field  for  our  necessary  spiritual 
unfoldment  in  relation  to  the  visible  order  of  things, 
and  for  our  contribution  to  the  evolution  of  the  race. 
Yet  we  may  gain  dominion  over  our  material  environ¬ 
ment.  The  very  essence  of  our  coming  spiritual  life 
is  a  deep  consciousness  of  the  reality  of  the  unseen, 
supplemented  by  a  working  knowledge  of  its  laws, 
for  application  to  the  problems  of  life. 

Very  significant  indeed  is  the  continual  working 


6  FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 


of  Science  in  the  direction  of  this  deeper  spiritual  view 
of  the  universe,  with  its  entirely  new  idea  of  matter, 
strangely  metaphysical  in  everything  but  nomenclature. 
Science  is  beginning  to  show  that  the  real  nature  of 
things  is  quite  different  from  that  which  appears  to 
our  present  senses  which  we  now  know  to  be  very 
limited  in  their  scope  and  therefore  not  wholly  de¬ 
pendable.  It  has  already  reduced  matter  to  a  form 
of  energy,  and  now  admits  that  the  ultimate  constitu¬ 
tion  of  the  ion  is  very  baffling.  Spiritual  seers  are 
anticipating  the  work  of  establishing  its  basis  in  the 
Universal  Mind.  At  any  rate,  the  apparently  solid 
inert  mass  of  steel  girder  which  supports  our  modern 
sky-scraper  is  not  the  kind  of  thing  it  is  usually 
supposed  to  be.  Science  tells  us  that  it  is  composed 
of  myriads  of  minute  particles,  not  actually  touching 
one  another,  but  dancing  around  one  another  at  an 
incredible  rate  of  speed,  each  constituting  a  center  of 
electrical  energy.  Again,  Science  is  beginning  to 
posit  a  rudimentary  phase  of  consciousness  in  the 
vegetable  kingdom,  and  there  are  even  here  and  there 
suggestions  concerning  its  presence  in  nature’s  lower 
inanimate  forms.  Then,  again,  scientists  seem  to  be 
recognizing  quite  generally,  in  the  phenomena  of  the 
natural  world,  the  play  of  a  Universal  Mind.  Un¬ 
doubtedly  this  mysterious  energy  with  which  they 
deal  in  phenomena,  will  prove  to  be  essentially  mind- 
energy,  operating  under  the  higher  laws  of  the 
Eternal  Mind,  underlying  the  whole  cosmos,  and  find¬ 
ing  its  highest  visible  expression  in  man.  We  rejoice 
therefore  in  the  recent  contributions  of  Science  to  the 


GENERAL  INSTRUCTION 


7 


dawning  consciousness  of  the  Unseen  Universe  of 
Mind  and  of  Ultimate  Reality.  The  next  step  is  the 
mastery,  not  only  of  the  laws  pertaining  to  phenomena, 
(in  their  present  formulation,  apparently  still  subject 
to  correction),  but  also  of  the  higher  laws  underlying 
phenomena,  pertaining  to  the  secrets  of  life.  Here 
our  spiritual  philosophy  and  fundamental  religion  will 
make  its  great  contribution. 

While  gratefully  acknowledging  the  contribution  of 
modern  Science,  it  might  be  pointed  out  with  profit 
that,  in  a  sense,  our  material  advance  is  in  itself  a 
sign  of  our  mental  and  spiritual  deficiency,  in  spite 
of  the  fact  that  a  certain  amount  of  mental  and  spirit¬ 
ual  attainment  is  necessarily  involved  in  the  prosecu¬ 
tion  of  scientific  achievement  The  emphasis  has  been 
placed  upon  superficial  observance  of  phenomena  and 
the  logical  faculties  have  been  exalted  above  the  in¬ 
tuitional  powers.  The  outstanding  progress  of  the 
past  generation  has  been  along  mechanical  lines  as 
witnessed  to  in  the  great  inventions  of  the  age.  It 
is  true  that  even  this  progress  is  not  without  its  pos¬ 
sibilities  for  good  in  supplying  certain  vehicles  for 
spiritual  progress,  provided  a  corresponding  spiritual 
advance  is  to  be  made,  but  in  itself  it  might  easily 
prove  more  of  a  detriment  than  an  advantage  to  real 
and  permanent  human  progress. 

Notwithstanding,  the  place  and  benefits  of  so-called 
physical  Science,  it  is  becoming  increasingly  clear  that 
the  recent  discoveries  in  the  inner  realm  of  the  mind 
and  spirit  of  man  constitute  the  greatest  progress  in 
modern  knowledge,  and  that  the  field  of  psychology, 


8  FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 


which  is  intimately  related  with  religion  and  the  realm 
of  the  Spirit,  holds  the  greatest  possibilities  for 
human  development  and  dominion  over  environment. 
In  short,  psychology  is  the  coming  Science.  The  fact 
is  that  most  of  us  do  not  even  dream  of  the  hidden 
potentialities  of  the  mind  and  spirit  of  man.  Profound 
students  of  the  evolutionary  process  no  longer  regard 
it  as  a  mechanical  process,  but  recognize  the  part  that 
mind  plays  in  it.  They  see  dimly  the  original  spiritual 
involution  which  makes  possible  and  governs  the  ex¬ 
ternal  evolution  or  unfolding  process  of  the  divine 
spark  toward  its  high  consummation,  according  to  the 
laws  of  mind.  To  the  present,  we  have  cooperated 
with  the  Eternal  Energy  largely  along  external  lines, 
which  may  have  a  place  in  our  evolution,  but  doubt¬ 
less  a  subordinate  place.  However,  it  is  high  time  for 
a  greater  conscious  effort  to  cooperate  with  it  along 
higher  lines  according  to  the  laws  of  the  mind,  and  by 
the  development  of  that  “faculty  divine,”  even  faith, 
which  acts  as  a  real  force  in  every  department  of  life. 

For  purpose  of  illustration,  let  us  consider  that  the 
wonderful  principle  of  adaptation  to  environment, 
manifested  in  the  slow  development  of  the  organ  of 
sight  and  of  all  the  faculties,  or  in  the  gradual  de¬ 
velopment  of  wings  in  the  history  of  the  evolution  of 
bird-life,  is  essentially  a  subconscious  mind-process 
due,  for  instance,  to  the  intense  and  persistent  desire 
of  the  bird  to  fly.  To  cite  an  extreme  and  remote 
possibility,  we  might  say  that  as  the  subconscious  has 
been  shown  to  govern  bodily  functions  and  growth, 
we  can  see  how  this  desire  and  effort,  especially  when 


GENERAL  INSTRUCTION  9 

scientifically  directed,  might  eventually  produce  the 
flying  man  of  ancient  fable,  were  it  practically  pos¬ 
sible  to  overcome  the  tremendous  counter-suggestion 
born  of  man’s  unimaginative  sophistication  and  present 
inordinate  disbelief  in  the  forces  of  the  unseen.  Man 
has  not  lost  his  desire  to  fly,  born  of  the  universal  di¬ 
vine  urge  within  to  conquer  his  limitations  and  to 
gain  dominion  over  his  environment,  but  owing  to  his 
one-sided  development  and  the  exercise  of  his  rational 
and  impirical  faculties  to  the  exclusion  of  his  imagina¬ 
tive  and  intuitional  faculties,  he  has  been  obliged  to 
conquer  the  air  by  the  comparatively  crude  external 
way  of  air-machines.  There  is  still  hope  of  a  better 
way,  however,  even  if  the  idea  of  growing  wings  be 
rejected,  for  the  possibility  of  levitation  looms  up  on 
the  horizon  of  metaphysical  research,  in  which  it  is 
quite  clear  to  the  profound  and  unprejudiced  student 
that  the  old  Biblical  and  occult  accounts  are  some  day 
to  be  corroborated  by  modern  experience.  . 

Again,  let  us  consider  the  modern  invention  of  wire¬ 
less  telegraphy  and  telephony.  Scientists  in  their 
study  of  insect  life  have  recently  discovered  that  in¬ 
sects  possess  unseen  means  of  communication,  perhaps 
made  possible  through  minute  wireless  apparatus  pro 
vided  by  their  antennae.  Again,  then,  we  are  outdone 
by  our  humbler  friends  of  the  lower  kingdom,  who 
have  pursued  the  inner  way  of  development  exclu¬ 
sively,  howbeit  subconsciously.  Nevertheless,  tele¬ 
pathy,  clairvoyance,  and  the  like  are  genuine  faculties 
that  have  been  proven  through  the  intuitive  insight 
and  experience  of  many  individuals  in  every  walk  of 


10  FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 


life,  not  to  mention  their  establishment  by  the  scientific 
methods  of  such  pioneer  scientists  as  Flammarion  and 
many  others.  It  is  apparent  that  it  is  one  of  the  latent 
faculties  in  the  race,  appearing  here  and  there  in  in¬ 
dividuals  more  highly  developed  along  certain  lines  for 
one  reason  or  another,  than  their  fellows.  This  faculty 
is  doubtless  about  to  be  developed  universally.  It 
is  quite  conceivable  that  when  each  mind  is  recognized 
as  a  sort  of  wireless  station  and  the  law  of  its  opera¬ 
tion  is  more  fully  understood  and  consciously  mas¬ 
tered,  the  present  wireless  system  will  become  anti¬ 
quated.  It  is  needless  to  point  out  the  far-reaching 
consequences,  moral  and  otherwise,  of  coming  human 
development  in  this  direction.  Certainly  it  is  worth 
while  to  explore  these  wonderful  inner  regions  of  the 
mind.  While  such  far-reaching  results  as  have  been 
suggested  may  be  relegated  to  the  remote  future,  the 
laws  under  consideration  may  be  applied  practically 
for  the  mastery  of  daily  problems,  individual  and 
social. 

Our  work  deals  with  the  subject:  “The  Faith  That 
Overcomes  the  World.”  With  the  breaking-down  of 
materialistic  philosophies  and  the  breaking-up  of 
materialistic  institutions,  and  with  widespread  disap¬ 
pointment  and  dissatisfaction  in  individual  experience, 
men  are  eagerly  seeking  the  secret  of  the  faith  that 
overcomes  the  world,  whether  consciously  or  uncon¬ 
sciously.  They  feel  instinctively  that  there  ought  to 
be  some  panacea  for  all  the  ills  of  human  life.  Praise 
the  Infinite  and  Eternal  One,  there  is  a  panacea !  This 
is  the  source,  the  principle,  of  the  victory  that  over- 


GENERAL  INSTRUCTION  « 

comes  the  world, — even  our  faith.  Yes,  through  faith, 
every  son  and  daughter  of  the  Most  High  enters  into 
his  rightful  heritage  of  dominion  and  happiness.  At 
the  outset,  we  must  arrive  at  an  understanding  of  the 
true  meaning  attached  to  the  words,  “World”  and 

“Faith.”  ,  ,  . 

By  the  term  “World,”  the  Bible  refers  to  the  whole 

visible  universe,  which  we  experience  through  the 
senses,  everything  with  which  we  have  to  do  in  our  ex¬ 
ternal’ life.  It  is  ordained  that  we  exercise  mastery 
over  the  things  that  pertain  to  this  visible  world.  All 
these  things  are  good  and  have  their  place  in  the  divine 
order,  for  they  are  expressions  of  the  Eternal  Life. 
The  term  “World”  is  often  employed  in  the  Bible  in 
a  bad  sense.  This  is  not  because  the  visible  order  is 
essentially  bad.  It  refers  rather  to  a  wrong  mental 
attitude  toward  the  visible  world,  to  a  wrong  state  of 
consciousness,  which  we  may  call  the  “world-con¬ 
sciousness.”  The  Master  said,  “In  the  world,  ye  shall 
have  tribulation,  but  be  of  good  cheer,  I  have  over¬ 
come  the  world.”  He  associated  the  tribulation  not 
with  the  spiritual-consciousness  which  shall  one  day 
subdue  the  earth  and  hold  the  life  of  man  and  the 
elements  and  all  under  the  universal  sway  of  the  divine 
law  but  rather  with  that  erroneous  concept  of  the 
world  which  is  prevalent  today  and  which  fails  to 
relate  the  world  to  the  spiritual  universe  underlying 
it.  This  attitude  toward  the  world  is  the  “World, 
or  the  world-consciousness,  if  you  will,  which  with  all 
its  attendant  evils,  is  to  be  overcome  by  our  faith.  _ 
Jesus,  and  indeed  all  the  great  teachers  of  Divine 


12  FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 


Wisdom  as  well,  have  ever  known  and  taught  the 
illusory  nature  of  the  external  world.  The  eastern 
sages  have  referred  to  it  as  “Maya.”  In  the  Bible 
it  is  referred  to  as  the  “world,”  or  as  “the  things  that 
are  temporal,”  that  shall  pass  away.  Our  modern 
poet,  Tennyson,  has  contrasted  it  with 

“The  true  world  within  the  world  we  see 

Whereof  our  world  is  but  the  bounding  shore.” 

As  already  indicated,  modern  Science  is  showing  us 
that  matter  is  very  different  in  its  ultimate  nature 
from  the  world  that  appears  to  the  senses ;  in  fact  of 
late  Science  has  practically  eliminated  matter,  present¬ 
ing  it  as  a  phase  of  energy  issuing  from  some  unknown 
source.  That  Source  is  the  Infinite  and  Eternal  Mind, 
akin  to  our  mind  and  operating  through  our  mind  in 
so  far  as  obstacles  are  removed. 

In  other  words,  the  world  that  we  see  cannot  be  said 
to  be  the  real  world  in  the  sense  that  it  is  permanent 
or  the  sphere  of  causation.  Neither  does  it  reveal  in 
itself  the  true  nature  of  existence  and  its  laws.  In 
so  far  as  our  conscious  mental  life  is  limited  to  the 
circumference  of  existence,  so  to  speak,  we  know 
neither  ourselves  nor  life.  We  know  not  how  to  live. 
The  lack  of  understanding  in  this  direction,  according 
to  the  trend  of  all  the  higher  thought  of  the  ages, 
involves  us  in  the  inharmonious  conditions  involved  in 
the  condition-realm  when  out  of  adjustment  to  and 
correspondence  with  the  realm  of  Reality  and 
Causation,  which  Jesus  called  heaven. 

Now  what  is  this  faith  that  overcomes  the  world- 


GENERAL  INSTRUCTION 


13 


consciousness,  and  hence  gains  mastery  over  all  world- 
conditions?  Surely  faith  here  is  not  to  be  identified 
with  a  merely  conventional  form  of  faith  which  often 
is  practically  a  kind  of  lifeless  superstition  with  many 
a  materialistic  taint,  but  rather  must  it  be  understood 
in  its  deeper  meaning  as  a  dynamic  spiritual  conscious¬ 
ness  making  direct  and  immediate  contact  with  the 
realm  of  Reality.  It  may  be  defined  as  a  realizing 
consciousness  of  the  reality  of  the  Unseen.  It  is 
a  consciousness  which  brings  us  into  correspondence 
with  the  Infinite  Life,  releasing  the  power  of  that  Life ; 
it  opens  man,  the  individualized  center  of  the  Divine 
activity,  to  the  inflow  of  the  Divine  Spirit  for  opera¬ 
tions  in  the  world-sphere,  for  overcoming  the  world 
and  building  Eternity  in  time.  If  we  would  attain  to 
the  overcoming  faith  and  life,  we  must,  through 
prayer,  burn  into  our  souls  the  sublime  consciousness 
of  Paul,  who  declared— “While  we  look  not  at  the 
things  which  are  seen ;  for  the  things  which  are  seen 
are  temporal;  but  the  things  which  are  not  seen  are 
eternal.,, 

There  must  be  no  misunderstanding  concerning  this 
higher  view  of  the  world.  It  must  not  be  miscon¬ 
strued  to  entail  aloofness  from  the  common  concerns 
of  men  in  the  workaday  world,  a  shirking  of  the 
trivial  task  and  common  round,  a  forgetfulness  con¬ 
cerning  the  great  truth  that  “the  path  of  duty  is  the 
way  to  glory,”  to  that  great  glory  at  heart  which  is 
akin  to  the  heavenly  glory.  Life  on  the  earth  plane 
is  a  school  experience,  where  through  discipline  and 
service  we  learn  the  great  lesson  of  life,  which  ulti- 


14  FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 

mately  brings  complete  freedom  from  the  bondage  of 
the  world,  equipping  us  for  service  on  the  higher 
planes.  We  dare  not  shirk  the  full  measure  of  this 
experience  and  unfoldment  which  comes  from  contact 
with  the  world,  but  we  learn  in  the  thick  of  it  all  to 
apply  the  higher  law,  we  operate  from  the  higher  plane, 
from  the  center  within,  where  dwells  the  Universal 
Power  in  all  His  fulness.  Then  we  can  remain  in  the 
world  and  be  not  of  it.  We  can  overcome  it.  Emerson 
said,  “The  only  sin  is  limitation.”  Paul  said,  “God 
hath  supplied  all  your  needs,  according  to  his  riches 
in  glory.”  Faith,  real  faith,  releases  those  riches, 
enabling  us  to  overcome  all  limitations.  What  is  the 
nature  of  these  limitations?  What  are  the  various 
phases  of  the  world-condition  of  things  which  we  seek 
to  overcome  in  our  individual  and  corporate  life?  We 
shall  take  them  up  under  six  headings,  namely,  Fear, 
Ignorance,  Failure,  Sin,  Sickness,  Death.  All  of 
these  are  really  phases  of  sin  because  phases  of  lack, 
lack  in  the  midst  of  Abundant  Life,  all  very  real  to 
human  experience,  but  unreal  in  the  sense  of  not  being 
a  permanent  part  of  God’s  eternal  order,  part  and 
parcel  with  the  world  to  be  overcome. 

The  general  object  of  the  studies  is  to  encourage 
the  application  of  the  fundamental  principles  of  Truth, 
common  to  the  prophets,  poets  and  seers  of  all  ages, 
correlating  them  with  the  original  and  profounder 
teachings  of  the  Master,  as  well  as  the  new  knowledge 
in  every  field.  Prayer  and  faith  are  set  forth  as  crea¬ 
tive  forces,  operating  according  to  unfailing  law,  and 
capable  of  unfolding  the  higher  powers  of  mind  and 


GENERAL  INSTRUCTION 


IS 

spirit,  which  will  bring  about  the  spiritual  emancipa¬ 
tion  of  man,  and  produce  the  spiritual  Superman  of 
unbounded  energy,  courage,  dominion  and  beneficence. 


CHAPTER  II 


Overcoming  Fear 

One  of  the  most  direful  concomitants  of  the  world¬ 
consciousness  is  the  fear-thought.  Fear  is  the  arch¬ 
enemy  of  the  human  race.  It  issues  in  poverty,  sick¬ 
ness  and  death.  The  whole  world  today  is  under  the 
domination  of  the  fear-thought.  The  passion  for 
material  power  and  for  the  accumulation  of  vast 
material  possessions,  with  its  accompaniment  of  selfish 
strife  and  trampling  upon  one  another’s  rights,  is 
symptomatic  and  a  manifestation  of  the  latent  fears 
that  saturate  the  consciousness  of  men  and  nations. 
It  led  to  the  world-war;  it  may  yet  lead  to  greater 
calamities  until  the  world  in  its  humiliation  and  des¬ 
peration  humbles  itself  to  learn  of  the  higher  law, 
and  is  brought  to  the  understanding  that  all  this 
feverish  strife  and  struggle  for  material  supremacy 
is  the  most  stupendous  folly. 

The  victims  and  abject  slaves  of  personal  fear  num¬ 
ber  in  the  thousands.  All  of  us  at  times  are  tempted 
to  harbor  some  form  of  fear.  It  is  difficult  in  the 
midst  of  such  a  predominating  race-thought  of  fear 
and  of  fearful  suggestions  on  every  hand,  to  rise  com¬ 
pletely  above  every  response  to  the  fear-thought. 

Fear  in  all  its  various  manifestations,  fear  of  sick- 

16 


OVERCOMING  FEAR 


17 


ness,  fear  of  calamity,  fear  of  death  and  what  not, 
leaves  a  terrible  trail  of  misery  in  its  path.  Psychology 
is  beginning  to  show  the  disastrous  inhibitions  which 
it  produces  in  the  mental  faculties,  blasting  men’s 
fondest  hopes  and  aspirations  and  paralyzing  their 
powers.  Physiological  science  is  indicating  the  de¬ 
structive  effect  of  fear  on  the  tissues  and  functions  of 
the  body.  It  lowers  the  vibrations  of  the  mind  and 
body  which  means  a  lowering  of  spiritual,  mental  and 
physical  efficiency.  Fear  is  a  sin,  for  it  is  the  result 
of  the  absence  of  faith.  Faith  is  the  only  cure  for 
this  arch-sin.  Faith  is  the  only  power  that  can  over¬ 
come  this  phase  of  the  world-consciousness. 

Fear  is  born  of  material-mindedness.  It  involves  at 
least  partial  ignorance  of  the  true  nature  of  God  and 
of  the  law  of  His  Universe.  Only  a  vital  and  dynamic 
faith  that  is  a  realizing  consciousness  of  the  unseen 
Kingdom  of  Reality,  at  the  heart  and  center  of  which 
is  God,  the  one  real,  beneficent  Power  in  the  universe, 
in  whom  we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being, 
can  save  man  from  the  bondage  and  tyranny  of  his 

fear. 

A  real  and  dynamic  faith,  in  the  first  place,  can 
free  one  from  the  fear  of  harm  and  calamity.  .There 
is  one  Power  in  all  the  universe.  All  that  is,  is  under 
an  unfailing  and  beneficent  law.  A  study  of  the 
messages  of  the  seers,  a  profounder  search  of  the 
Scriptures,  familiarity  with  the  trend  of  modern 
knowledge,  and  the  testimony  of  the  heart  born  of 
deeper  experience  and  meditation,  all  these  witness  to 
this  great  truth  of  life.  Even  the  tempoiary  manifes 


18  FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 


tations  of  what  the  world  calls  evil  are  under  this 
universal  law,  working  to  good.  The  tribulation  in 
the  world  is  a  manifestation  of  the  law’s  working  to 
bring  us  into  harmony  with  it,  that  we  may  rise  above 
the  world.  Through  living  faith,  wrought  out  in 
profound  meditation  and  true  prayer,  the  Christ-mind 
in  us  enables  us  to  overcome  the  world  and  to  exercise 
dominion  over  circumstances,  by  the  unfailing  law. 
When  we  learn  that  in  reality  there  is  nothing  to  fear, 
then,  and  then  only,  is  our  fear  finally  conquered. 

Next,  there  is  the  fear  of  poverty  and  failure. 
Everywhere  men,  rich  and  poor  alike,  are  in  fear  of 
poverty  and  failure  in  general.  They  think  that  they 
are  dependent  on  some  one  or  other  visible  source  or 
material  means.  They  are  not  conscious  of  the  fact 
that  if  every  visible  medium  of  supply  be  swept  away, 
there  is  a  law  whereby  they  may  be  filled,  if  they  have 
faith.  Little  do  they  dream  of  the  great  truth  that 
there  is  within  their  reach  and  at  their  command,  the 
inexhaustible  resources  of  the  divine  supply  from  the 
One  Source,  manifesting  itself  visibly  through  many 
channels,  according  to  law.  That  Source  is  tapped 
by  faith.  It  was  on  that  Source  that  the  Master  ever 
depended.  He  knew  no  lack.  He  said  that  we  should 
follow  Him.  We  should  learn  more  and  more  to  de¬ 
pend  on  that  One  Source  rather  than  on  this  or  that 
transient  medium  of  supply.  Only  thus  can  we  be  real 
masters  of  any  situation.  Only  thus  can  poverty  and 
failure  be  permanently  and  universally  overcome,  the 
fierce  strife  of  competition  made  to  cease,  and  the 
golden  era  ushered  in.  Let  it  be  understood,  more- 


OVERCOMING  FEAR 


19 

over,  that  this  kind  of  faith  is  always  associated  with 
a  life  of  energetic  service. 

Fear  of  personal  failure  may  be  overcome,  further¬ 
more,  by  the  knowledge  of  the  fact  that  one’s  dreams 
and  aspirations  are  really  the  divine  voice  from  with¬ 
in.  These  dreams  are  meant  to  be  realized,  in  the 
very  nature  of  things  as  the  Eternal  One  has  ordained 
them.  The  power  to  realize  them  is  given.  Recognize 
no  seeming  defeat,  then.  Scorn  the  lying  assertions 
of  visible  appearances.  However  overwhelming  the 
obstacles,  never  give  up.  Rejoice  that  the  struggle  is 
to  call  forth  hidden  powers.  Praise  God  that  all  things 
are  already  yours  in  the  realm  of  the  real,  and  that 
they  are  on  their  way  to  manifestation  because  of  your 
faith.  In  the  midst  of  the  struggle,  rest  on  the  un¬ 
failing  law  that  will  surely  bring  you  into  your  own, 
if  you  faint  not.  Know  deeply  and  surely  that  “He 
that  endureth  until  the  end,  the  same  shall  be  saved” 
in  every  phase  of  his  life.  Amid  the  surface  stress, 
realize  the  deep  calm  of  the  Eternal,  the  peace  and 
power  of  God  that  passeth  all  understanding. 

We  conquer  gloriously  by  the  true  prayer  of  faith, 
which  is  dynamic  communion  with  the  Eternal  God 
that  dwells  in  all  His  fulness  in  the  mysterious  depths 
of  our  own  inner  being.  There  we  release  a  power 
that  is  omnipotent,  and  therefore  sufficient  to  enable 
us  to  master  the  most  adverse  combination  of 
circumstances. 

One  of  the  most  persistent  and  unwholesome  of 
fears  is  the  fear  of  death.  Many  live  their  whole  life 
long  in  bondage  to  this  hideous  fear  of  death.  It  is 


20  FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 


because  they  have  not  attained  to  a  faith  sufficiently 
real  to  enable  them  to  see  life  in  the  light  of  the 
Eternal,  to  live  life  in  conscious  contact  with  the 
Universal.  Their  own  eternal  Ego  is  ordinarily 
identified  in  their  consciousness  with  the  body,  which 
is  but  the  outer  sheath  clothing  the  inner  man,  the 
deathless  child  of  the  Eternal.  As  men  learn  through 
meditation  and  prayer  to  live  in  the  consciousness  of 
the  Eternal,  they  will  lose  the  fear  of  death,  for  the 
thought  of  death  will  vanish  in  the  consciousness  of 
boundless  Life  in  God,  now  and  forever.  They  shall 
know  that  no  external  circumstance  can  touch  that  real 
life  of  theirs,  hid  with  Christ  in  God.  This  is  the 
victory  that  overcometh  the  world,  even  our  faith. 
Truly,  faith  can  accomplish  all  things;  it  can  release 
us  from  the  bondage  of  every  fear. 

MEDITATIONS  FOR  OVERCOMING  FEAR 

‘‘Why  are  ye  fearful,  O  ye  of  little  faith?” 

“Peace,  be  still!” 

“Fear  not,  stand  still  and  see  the  salvation  of  the  Lord, 
which  he  will  show  you  this  day.” 

“Trust  ye  in  the  Lord  Jehovah,  for  in  the  Lord 
Jehovah  is  everlasting  strength.” 

“I  will  fear  no  evil,  for  Thou  art  with  me.” 

“My  life  is  hid  with  Christ  in  God.” 

“He  that  dwelleth  in  the  Secret  Place  of  the  Most 
High  shall  abide  under  the  shadow  of  the 
Almighty.” 

“His  Truth  shall  be  thy  shield.  Thou  shalt  not  be 
afraid.  There  shall  no  evil  befall  thee.” 

“All  things  work  together  for  good.” 


OVERCOMING  FEAR 


21 


“The  Lord  God  Omnipotent  reigneth!” 

(Reading:  Daniel  6:16-23.  Psalms  91  and  121.) 


I  cast  my  burden  upon  the  Lord,  resting  in  sure 
confidence  on  the  perfect  law,  whereby  the  Love 
of  God  shields  and  protects  me  and  mine,  the  Wis¬ 
dom  of  God  directs  us,  the  Power  of  God  sustains 
us,  the  Peace  of  God  surrounds  and  enfolds  us. 
Let  the  way  be  opened  to  the  great  deep  within. 
Be  still  and  know  that  I  am  God  the  mighty  One 
in  the  midst  of  thee. 

Dear  God,  Eternal  and  Universal  Father-Spirit,  in 
whom  I  live  and  move  and  have  my  being,  I  open  my 
heart  to  the  inflow  of  the  Spirit  of  resistless  might,  that 
I  may  be  filled  with  the  energy  of  thy  Love,  for  the 
work  which  Thou  hast  given  me  to  do  in  Thy  name  and 
for  Thy  glory.  I  praise  Thee,  O  God,  that  Thou  dost 
give  me  according  to  Thy  riches  in  glory  to  be  strength¬ 
ened  with  might  by  Thy  Spirit  in  the  inner  man,  that 
Christ  dwells  in  my  heart  by  faith,  that  Thou  dost 
lead  me  into  the  way  of  Truth  and  Life.  I  praise  Thee, 
that  Thou  hast  shown  me  that  I  am  really  a  son  of 
Thine,  made  in  Thy  image  for  dominion  and  mastery 
over  self  and  every  circumstance  of  life,  through  Thy 
power  that  worketh  in  me.  I  praise  Thee,  that  Thou 
art  leading  me  into  the  knowledge  of  Thee  as  my  ever¬ 
present  Friend  and  that  Thou  dost  sustain  me  in  all 
things,  through  Christ,  Who  is  my  Life.  Amen. 

“If  thou  canst  believe,  all  things  are  possible  to  him 
that  believeth.” 

In  God,  the  Source  of  all  power,  I  live  and  move  and 
have  my  being. 


22  FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 


“With  God,  all  things  are  possible.” 

“Who  through  faith  subdued  kingdoms,  wrought 
righteousness,  obtained  promises,  out  of  weakness 
were  made  strong.” 

(To  be  repeated  thoughtfully  in  the  Silence,  with 
mind  concentrated.  Let  these  great  truths  sink  down 
into  the  depths  of  your  consciousness,  in  a  few 
moments  of  inner  realization  following  each  medita¬ 
tion). 

I  open  my  mind  to  thoughts  of  good  only.  I  utterly 
reject  all  thoughts  of  harm  or  failure  seeking  admis¬ 
sion  where  they  have  no  right.  I  decree  that  they 
shall  have  no  power  over  me.  God  has  given  me  a 
work  to  do  and  I  shall  accomplish  it.  I  will  never 
recognize  any  possibility  of  failure  or  defeat,  but  move 
forward  with  irresistible  strength  in  the  proud  con¬ 
sciousness  of  my  sonship,  to  overcome  all  obstacles. 
They  shall  have  no  power  over  me.  I  am  master  of 
my  own  mental  kingdom*  I  am  master  of  circum¬ 
stance.  By  the  Eternal  within  me,  I  can,  I  must,  I 
will! 

The  victory  is  mine,  for  I  am  one  with  the  One 
Power  in  the  Universe,  God.  My  divine  birthright  as 
a  child  of  the  Most  High  is  a  glorious  dominion  over 
self  and  environment.  All  things  are  mine,  for  I  am 
one  with  the  Universal  Life  and  Energy,  the  Infinite, 
Eternal,  Creative  Energy,  from  which  all  things  pro¬ 
ceed,  according  to  the  infallible  law  of  the  Universal 
Mind.  I  know  the  Truth,  and  the  Truth  has  made  me 
free  from  miserable  slavery  to  failure  and  defeat  and 
the  fear  of  it.  God  is  my  strength.  I  will  conquer. 
No  power  can  keep  me  from  that  which  is  my  own  by 
divine  right. 

God  is  expressing  Himself  in  me  in  an  ever-increas- 


OVERCOMING  FEAR 


23 


ing  peace  and  calm.  The  heavenly  harmony  of  the 
Christ-mind  is  manifesting  itself  in  energy,  peace  and 
power. 

All  the  forces  of  the  Universe  are  at  my  comimand. 
They  are  working  for  my  progress  and  unfoldment  and 
dominion  now.  All  praise  to  the  Most  High,  the  In¬ 
finite  One,  from  Whom  cometh  every  good  and  perfect 
gift. 


CHAPTER  III 


Overcoming  Ignorance 

The  next  phase  of  the  world-condition  of  things  which 
we  seek  to  overcome  is  that  of  Ignorance.  From  one 
point  of  view,  ignorance  is  responsible  for  every  im¬ 
pediment  in  our  pilgrimage  toward  the  Infinite.  Gau¬ 
tama,  the  Buddha  pronounced  it  the  root-cause  of  all 
evil.  Jesus  Christ  declared:  “Ye  shall  know  the 
truth  and  the  truth  shall  make  you  free.”  A  modern 
pronouncement  concerning  it  avers  : 

“Know  this,  O  man,  sole  root  of  sin  in  thee 
Is  not  to  know  thine  own  divinity.” 

In  a  similar  vein,  one  branch  of  modern  philosophy, 
of  ancient  origin,  affirms  that  the  clue  to  the  whole 
plight  of  struggling  humanity  lies  in  the  fact  that  we 
have  forgotten  the  source  whence  we  have  sprung, 
with  all  the  hidden  potentialities  which  knowledge 
of  it  involves.  That  inborn  power,  destined  to  be 
revealed  in  due  time,  is  suggested  in  the  words  of 
the  poet, 

“Trailing  clouds  of  glory  do  we  come 
From  God,  who  is  our  home.” 

Certainly,  even  from  the  standpoint  of  what  we  are 

24 


OVERCOMING  IGNORANCE 


25 


pleased  to  call  scientifically  ascertained  facts,  we  may 
trace  the  vast  majority  of  instances  of  fear,  failure 
and  sickness  to  ignorance,  and  if  we  may  be  open- 
minded  enough  to  give  credence  to  some  of  our  daring 
pioneers  in  physiological  science,  not  to  mention 
students  of  the  subconscious  in  its  relation  to  physio¬ 
logical  life,  we  shall  venture  to  say  death,  too,  may 
be  traced  to  ignorance  of  the  laws  of  life.  If  we  are 
able  to  go  still  further  and  to  follow  some  of  our  meta¬ 
physicians  into  the  realm  of  the  unknown  from  the 
scientific  standpoint,  is  it  not  possible  that  we  may  find 
that  ignorance  is  indeed  the  sole  root  of  our  limita¬ 
tions  ?  At  any  rate,  we  are  compelled  to  admit  a  very 
extensive  range  of  limitations  imposed  by  ignorance 
in  both  scientific  and  spiritual  fields. 

The  crying  need  of  humanity,  then,  is  freedom  from 
the  bondage  of  ignorance.  We  turn  therefore  to  the 
problem  of  its  removal.  How  is  knowledge  to  be 
supplied  more  fully?  In  a  sense  the  whole  history  of 
human  progress  is  the  history  of  the  struggle  to  over¬ 
come  ignorance.  In  times  past  the  methods  employed 
have  been  largely  objective  and  external,  so  far  as 
conscious  effort  has  been  concerned,  although  now  we 
know,  of  course,  that  the  subconscious  element  has 
always  been  active  and  potent  in  moulding  the  life  of 
man.  However,  for  generations  past,  reason  and  the 
logical  faculties  in  man,  important  tho  they  may  be 
as  a  phase  of  man’s  development,  have  been  unduly 
exalted  to  the  comparative  exclusion  of  other  impor¬ 
tant  faculties  holding,  no  doubt,  even  greater  possibil¬ 
ities  for  man’s  overcoming  of  ignorance  and  for  the 


26  FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 


realization  of  his  high  destiny.  We  might  describe 
these  faculties  generally  as  the  intuitive  faculties. 

We  may  well  note,  in  passing,  that  while  we  are 
in  the  process  of  learning  the  higher  way  to  Truth, 
every  encouragement  should  be  accorded  the  more 
painful  and  limited  attempts  to  acquire  and  disseminate 
knowledge  in  vogue  in  the  present  order  of  things. 
Our  present  scientific  and  educational  systems,  defec¬ 
tive  though  they  may  be,  mark  as  great  a  triumph  over 
the  limitations  of  the  past  as  future  achievements  will 
mark  over  the  limitations  of  the  present.  Present-day 
scientific  study  of  surface  phenomena  constitutes  a 
part  of  the  race  unfoldment  and  gives  us  a  somewhat 
useful,  howbeit  one-sided  and  deficient  contact  and 
correspondence  with  the  noumena  of  Reality,  owing 
to  the  limitations  of  our  present  faculties.  We  are 
still  far  from  ascertaining  the  underlying  cause  of 
things,  the  secret  of  existence,  and  the  law  of  life 
enabling  us  to  live  life  in  its  fulness.  Nevertheless, 
science  itself  is  groping  forward  through  the  darkness, 
fast  destroying  the  materialism  which  it  once  estab¬ 
lished,  and  is  more  and  more  adopting  methods  that 
lead  to  the  confirmation  of  the  conclusions  of  the  great 
intuitional  seers  of  past  and  present  ages.  Doubtless 
we  are  on  the  eve  of  at  least  a  partial  solution  of  the 
Riddle  of  the  Universe,  and  this  time  we  are  going  to 
find  ourselves  on  the  right  road,  at  any  rate. 

Our  educational  world,  too,  is  undergoing  a  process 
of  change.  No  longer  are  our  educators  satisfied  with 
the  old  methods  of  cramming  facts  into  the  heads  of 
the  pupils.  They  are  rather  disposed  to  draw  out  the 


OVERCOMING  IGNORANCE 


27 


latent  potentialities  in  the  child’s  mind.  In  this  con¬ 
nection,  we  recall  the  wise  statement  of  that  great 
mind,  Plato,  who  said :  “Certain  professors  of  educa¬ 
tion  must  be  wrong  when  they  say  that  they  can  put 
a  knowledge  into  the  soul  which  was  not  there  before, 
— whereas  our  argument  shows  that  the  power  and 
capacity  of  learning  exist  in  the  soul  already.” 
Browning,  another  great  mind  coming  into  its  own 
today,  likewise  says: — 

“Truth  is  within  ourselves 
There  is  an  inmost  center  in  us  all, 

Where  Truth  abides  in  fulness  and  to  know 
Rather  consists  in  opening  out  a  way 
Whence  the  imprisoned  splendor  may  escape, 
Than  effecting  entry  for  a  light 
Supposed  to  be  without.” 

While  the  latter  quotation  seems  to  refer  primarily  to 
great  transcendental  truths  of  the  spiritual  realm, 
which  we  shall  consider  at  a  later  point,  much  in  recent 
psychological  discovery,  especially  with  regard  to  the 
subconscious  region  of  the  mind,  would  indicate  that 
it  has  its  application  to  every  detail  of  experience  in 
the  phenomenal  world,  touching  the  actualities  of  our 
every-day  life  in  the  world.  In  the  first  place,  the  sub¬ 
conscious  holds  the  memory  of  everything  which  has 
entered  our  experience  in  this  life,  not  to  mention 
possible  previous  lives,  and  in  addition  to  this  it  holds 
who  knows  how  much  of  race-memories.  Again, 
although  there  is  much  evidence  from  psychical 
research  and  from  the  revelations  of  spiritual  seers, 
that  we  are  encompassed  by  a  cloud  of  unseen  wit- 


29  FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 


nesses,  perhaps  of  as  many  orders  of  beings  above  us 
as  there  are  orders  of  lower  beings,  partially  visible 
by  means  of  the  microscope,  below  us.  But  without 
recourse  to  any  of  this  evidence,  we  point  to  the  con¬ 
tact  of  the  minds  of  “living”  men  and  to  the  amazing 
evidence  of  the  practical  annihilation  of  time  and  space 
by  the  subconscious  mind  in  the  exercise  of  such  facul¬ 
ties  as  telepathy,  clairvoyance  and  the  like,  long  known 
to  master-minds,  and  now  practically  a  scientific  fact 
resulting  from  the  experimentation  of  pioneer  scien¬ 
tists  whose  daring  breaks  through  conventional  bar¬ 
riers  and  leads  the  way  to  new  fields  of  exploration 
and  conquest.  There  are  many  signs  of  new  faculties 
unfolding  in  man,  who  is  still  in  his  infancy,  and  they 
promise  undreamed-of  progress  in  overcoming 
ignorance. 

The  plain  truth  is  that  all  the  highest  thought  of  the 
ages,  scientific  and  spiritual,  points  to  the  fact  that  we 
are  veritable  centers  of  activity  in  the  Omniscient 
Mind.  The  Principle  of  Knowledge  dwells  within  us. 
Extravagant  and  impossible  though  it  may  seem  to  the 
poor  limited  hide-bound  habit-mind  which  at  first 
rebels  against  the  prospect  of  such  unwonted  freedom 
from  its  ordinary  groove  of  thought,  the  mind  of  man 
is  potentially  omniscient.  It  has  within  it  all  the  poten¬ 
tialities  of  divinity.  There  is  literally  no  limit  to  the 
knowledge  we  may  acquire,  or  more  strictly  speaking, 
let  us  say  that  we  may  bring  to  the  surface.  Undoubt¬ 
edly  when  Paul  said:  “All  things  are  yours,”  all 
knowledge  was  included.  If  we  could  so  master  the 
law  as  to  release  from  the  child  mind,  by  suggestion  or 


OVERCOMING  IGNORANCE 


29 


otherwise,  the  hidden  wealth  of  knowledge  stored 
therein  or  place  it  en  rapport  with  other  sources  of 
knowledge  with  which  it  is  in  contact  in  the  deeper 
regions  of  its  being,  what  a  revolution  would  take 
place  in  the  educational  world.  This  is  coming.  A 
much  greater  scientific  use  of  suggestion  should  be 
made  immediately  at  school  and  at  home,  in  impressing 
on  the  child  mind  the  ideas  of  character-growth  and 
achievement  which  we  desire  the  subconscious  to  work 
out.  In  this  connection,  we  should  employ  the  visu¬ 
alizing  and  imaginative  faculties  under  proper  con¬ 
ditions  of  concentration  and  emotional  stress. 

The  more  distinctly  spiritual  side  of  the  question  is 
now  to  be  faced,  if  we  may  be  allowed  for  convenience 
to  draw  a  distinction  between  the  spiritual,  mental, 
and  phenomenal  realms,  which  act  and  react  upon  one 
another,  and  in  the  last  analysis  are  one  and  essentially 
spiritual  in  the  broadest  and  deepest  sense  of  the  term. 
The  subconscious  life  of  man  is,  like  the  ordinary  con¬ 
scious  experience,  a  temporary  phase  in  man's  long 
spiritual  pilgrimage.  At  this  stage  of  our  evolution, 
in  dealing  with  actuality  we  do  well  to  reckon  with  the 
subconscious  life,  but  underlying  the  subconscious  life 
which  is  the  inner  sphere  of  human  experience,  is  the 
realm  and  life  of  pure  Spirit,  the  timeless,  spaceless, 
infinite  Reality  of  which  is  Christ,  the  very  center  and 
substance  of  our  being.  That  life  manifested  itself 
in  its  fulness  on  the  human  plane  in  the  life  of  Jesus 
Chirst,  but  the  Christ  is  in  us  all,  the  very  life  of  our 
life.  While  we  may  make  much  progress  by  the  more 
distinctly  psychological  approach  to  the  seat  of  knowl- 


30  FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 


edge,  by  such  processes  as  those  of  ordinary  sugges¬ 
tion,  there  is  an  approach  by  the  way  of  true  prayer 
which  may  bring  us  into  direct  and  dynamic  contact 
with  the  ultimate  Source  of  all  knowledge.  The 
awakening  of  our  higher  faculties  on  this  exalted  plane 
of  our  being  enables  us  to  transcend  even  the  limita¬ 
tions  of  the  subconscious  so  far  as  it  may  be  said  to 
involve  limitations,  or  more  strictly  speaking,  this 
higher  unfoldment  includes  efficient  functioning  in  the 
relations  of  the  conscious  and  subconscious,  and  pro¬ 
duces  an  harmonious  coordination  of  all  our  forces  on 
all  planes  of  our  being,  operating  normally  from  the 
Christ  center.  Conscious  dynamic  communion  with 
the  Divine  Source  of  knowledge,  while  closely  related 
to  psychic  law,  is  on  a  higher  plane,  and  transcends  it. 
Here  are  the  highest  resources  for  the  work  of  over¬ 
coming  ignorance. 

The  Master  promised  that  the  Spirit  would  guide 
the  disciples  (of  all  ages)  into  all  truth.  The  condition 
attached  to  that  guidance  was  the  exercise  of  faith  and 
prayer.  In  this  connection,  faith  and  prayer  are  con¬ 
ceived  in  their  deeper  sense.  By  “faith,”  we  do  not 
mean  credulity  or  superstition  but  the  evidence,  sight, 
knowledge,  in  the  consciousness,  of  things  not  seen, 
releasing  the  mighty  forces  of  the  soul.  By  “prayer,” 
we  do  not  mean  an  anxious  pleading  with  a  distant 
monarch  for  a  withheld  boon,  but  conscious  com¬ 
munion  and  contact  with,  and  transmission  of,  Omni¬ 
potent  Power,  limited  only  by  the  degree  of  the  faith 
to  which  we  have  attained.  Prayer  is  both  faith  in 
the  making  and  faith  in  action.  We  take  this  aspect 


OVERCOMING  IGNORANCE 


3i 

.•I 

of  the  subject  up  more  fully  in  connection  with  the 
work  of  overcoming  sickness.  Suffice  it  to  say  here 
that  there  is  absolutely  no  limit  to  the  possibilities  of 
faith  and  prayer,  and  this  applies  to  attaining  to  knowl¬ 
edge  as  well  as  to  all  other  human  achievements. 

At  this  point,  we  are  lead  to  inquire  as  to  the  nature 
of  the  truth  into  which  it  is  promised  that  the  Spirit 
will  guide  us.  In  the  first  place  it  undoubtedly  refers 
primarily  to  the  great  realities  of  life  and  to  the  one 
Great  Reality  underlying  all.  We  are  to  be  led  into 
the  great  truth  about  God ;  that  He  is  the  universally 
immanent,  omnipotent,  beneficent  Spirit,  in  whom  we 
live,  and  move,  and  have  our  being.  That  His  Uni¬ 
verse  is  essentially  a  spiritual  Universe  and  that  its  law 
is  the  law  of  eternal  love  and  good.  We  are  to  be  led 
into  the  great  truth  about  man;  that  man  is  a  child  of 
the  Eternal,  an  individual  life-center  within  the  being 
of  that  Eternal  and  Omnipotent  One,  an  essentially 
spiritual  being,  with  all  the  wondrous  potentialities  of 
divinity  latent  within  him,  to  be  developed  by  true 
faith  and  prayer.  These  are  great  saving  truths,  the 
full  knowledge  of  which,  through  the  whole  range  of 
our  being,  will  release  pristine,  titanic  forces  that  shall 
make  us  more  than  man,  that  shall  bring  us  to  the 
measure  of  the  stature  of  the  fulness  of  Christ.  “It 
doth  not  yet  appear  what  we  shall  be,”  when  “the  knowl¬ 
edge  of  the  Lord  shall  cover  the  earth  as  the  waters 
cover  the  sea.” 

With  the  development  of  faith,  or — in  terms  of 
spiritual  philosophy, — let  us  say,  “spiritual  conscious¬ 
ness,”  or  in  terms  of  psychology, —  the  “intuitional 


32  FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 


faculty,”  not  only  shall  we  attain  to  exalted  glimpses 
into  transcendental  regions  of  the  Spirit  or  perhaps  to 
open  vision  on  the  plane  of  heavenly  reality,  but  we 
shall  also  find  guidance  into  the  truth  concerning  the 
solution  of  our  immediate  problems  in  the  actual 
sphere  of  our  common  duties  and  school-day  experi¬ 
ence  on  the  world-plane  of  life.  We  can,  as  indicated 
before,  obtain  knowledge  concerning  the  phenomenal 
world  of  every-day  existence,  which  otherwise  would 
be  acquired  only  by  most  laborious  external  methods, 
but  now  will  be  apprehended  immediately.  We  have 
already  cited  the  great  seers  who  have  anticipated  the 
discoveries  made  by  the  slower  and  more  laborious 
empirical  methods  of  scientists.  The  Hindu  mystics 
and  Einstein  are  outstanding  illustrations  of  this  in 
widely  different  fields,  seeking  the  solution  of  the 
problems  pertaining  to  nature.  In  the  matter  of  per¬ 
sonal  problems,  the  same  law  obtains.  The  Master,  in 
His  human  life,  followed  this  course  of  procedure, 
manifestly  under  this  infallible  inner  guidance.  He 
promised  that  the  disciples  would  be  given  this  same 
guidance,  that  it  would  be  put  into  their  mouths  what 
they  should  say  when  brought  before  rulers  and  in 
other  trying  situations. 

The  recognition  of  this  principle  of  knowledge 
within  you,  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  within  you, 
together  with  sure  faith  in  its  law,  and  conformity  to 
all  conditions  of  its  operation,  will  be  of  the  greatest 
practical  value  to  you,  in  affording  an  unerring  guid¬ 
ance  in  every  situation  in  which  you  may  find  yourself. 
The  divine  and  omniscient  Knower  within  you  knows 


OVERCOMING  IGNORANCE 


33 


absolutely  what  you  have  need  of  for  your  spiritual 
and  physical  nourishment,  or  for  the  correction  of 
any  defect  or  ailment.  He  knows  precisely  what 
course  of  work  you  ought  to  pursue,  and  where  your 
services  can  be  used  along  the  way.  Trivial  though 
some  of  these  things  may  seem  in  this  connection, 
they  are  all  a  part  of  the  divine  plan  of  life  and  the  law 
of  divine  wisdom  is  operative  in  every  niche  of  the 
Universe.  How  many  when  confronted  with  a  prob¬ 
lem,  run  hither  and  yon  for  merely  human  aid,  rack 
their  brains  for  a  human  solution  on  a  “common- 
sense”  basis,  and  utterly  overlook  and  ignore  this 
divine  Knower  within.  Whether  you  are  solving  the 
profoundest  problem  in  philosophy,  whether  you  are 
solving  a  financial  problem  or  a  problem  in  Algebra, 
stop  standing  in  the  way  of  the  great  law,  with  your 
worrying  and  fussing.  Enter  into  the  silent  depths  of 
your  being,  and  say : —  “O  Thou  Infinite  and  Divine 
Knower  within  me,  Thou  knowest  the  answer,  Thou 
knowest  all  things.  I  thank  Thee  that  Thou  dost  ever 
reveal  unto  me  the  way,  when  I  seek  with  faith  and 
understanding  of  Thy  true  Nature  and  of  thine  infal¬ 
lible  law,  to  which  I  am  rising  now.”  If  you  are  not 
already  familiar  with  this  method  of  obtaining  ideas 
and  direction,  you  will  be  surprised  when  you  give  it 
a  genuine  trial.  If  men  in  dealing  with  their  individ¬ 
ual  and  corporate  problems,  would  stand  aside  and  see 
the  salvation  of  the  Lord,  the  Great  Knower  Within, 
by  resorting  to  this  higher  and  more  immediate  way 
of  knowledge,  properly  coordinating  the  exercise  of 
the  higher  faculties  with  the  logical  and  other  faculties. 


34  FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 


as,  for  instance,  by  working  out  in  experience  the; 
ideas  received  through  the  higher  channels,  the  world’s 
progress  in  knowledge  and  in  emancipation  from  its 
limitations  would  be  greatly  accelerated. 

There  is  a  Power  within  which  knows  all  things. 
By  absolute  faith  in  that  Power  and  by  conformity 
to  the  conditions  of  its  free  operation,  the  knowledge 
possessed  by  that  Power  is  made  available  for  us. 

MEDITATIONS 

FOR  KNOWLEDGE  AND  GUIDANCE 

The  Master  said: — “All  power  (knowledge)  is  given 
unto  me,  in  heaven  and  in  earth.” 

“The  Spirit  of  Truth  will  guide  you  into  all  truth:  and 
he  will  show  you  things  to  come.” 

The  Spirit  of  the  Omniscient  Christ  liveth  in  me. 

O  Thou  Infinite  Divine  Knower  within  me,  I  thank 
Thee  that  Thou  dost  reveal  unto  me  the 
mysteries  of  the  Kingdom  and  that  Thou  dost 
show  me  the  way  that  I  should  go.  I  open  my 
mind  and  heart  to  thine  infallible  guidance. 


Be  still  and  know  that  I  am  the  Omniscient  God  in  thy 
midst. 

Speak,  O  Thou  Infinite  and  Eternal  One*  for  thy  child 
listens  with  every  sense  of  the  spirit  open  to 
receive  the  wondrous  utterances  and  the  sure 
leading  of  thy  still  small  voice. 

SILENCE 

Arise,  for  thy  light  is  come,  and  the  knowledge  of  the 
Lord  is  risen  within  thee. 

“Praise  God  from  whom  all  blessings  flow.” 


OVERCOMING  IGNORANCE 


35 


“Wisdom  and  knowledge  is  granted” 

“God  giveth  man  knowledge.” 

It  is  given  to  you  to  know  the  mysteries  of  the 
Kingdom.” 

It  is  your  Father’s  good  pleasure  to  give  you  [all  the 
riches  of]  the  Kingdom.” 

“I  am  persuaded  that  ye  are  filled  with  all  knowledge.” 
“Understanding  is  a  well-spring  of  life.” 


I  cast  my  burden  on  the  Lord,  resting  in  sure  con¬ 
fidence  on  the  perfect  law,  whereby  the  Wisdom  of 
God  illumines  and  directs  me  and  mine,  now  and 
forever. 


CHAPTER  IV 
Overcoming  Failure 

It  has  already  been  suggested  that  most  if  not  all 
failure  would  be  overcome  if  we  could  attain  to  a 
knowledge  and  mastery  of  the  laws  of  life.  It  is  a 
self-evident  fact  that  much  of  the  failure  that  we  see 
about  us  on  every  hand  is  due  to  ignorance  or  lack  of 
the  ordinary  equipment  of  every-day  information  con¬ 
cerning  the  world  as  we  know  it.  The  spread  of 
education  and  of  the  various  character-developing 
institutions  of  modern  society  have  done  much  in 
placing  within  the  reach  of  the  people  opportunities 
for  helping  themselves  to  make  a  measurable  success 
of  their  lives.  It  is  our  purpose,  however,  to  delve 
more  deeply  into  these  problems  of  life  and  to  show 
that  even  those  who  have  made  the  most  of  themselves 
and  of  their  opportunities  have  scarcely  begun  to  learn 
to  really  live.  Humanity  as  a  whole,  moreover,  is 
lost  in  a  maze  of  problems  concerning  the  quest  of  a 
more  perfect  and  harmonious  way  of  social  life. 
These  problems  will  defy  our  best  endeavors  as  long 
as  we  treat  them  as  merely  economic  problems  and 
overlook  the  spiritual  laws  of  life.  We  must  get 


OVERCOMING  FAILURE 


37 

beneath  the  surface  of  things,  and  there  we  shall  find 
a  solution  for  all  our  problems. 

First,  let  us  consider  the  phase  of  failure  which 
manifests  itself  in  poverty.  We  have  already  pointed 
out  the  fact  that  fear  is  one  of  the  greatest  contribut¬ 
ing  causes  of  failure  and  poverty.  Fear,  born  of 
ignorance,  will  paralyze  every  spiritual,  mental,  and 
physical  faculty,  rendering  its  victim  powerless  to  cope 
with  any  situation,  however  great  his  potential  ability. 
Kill  out  his  fear  by  lodging  in  his  consciousness  the 
beneficence  of  the  Universe  in  which  he  has  his  being, 
and  the  titanic  strength  of  his  own  inherent  powers, 
and  you  arm  him  with  a  strength  that  is  irresistible. 
These  are  the  grand  truths  that  make  him  free. 

It  is  our  purpose,  however,  to  pass  beyond  principles 
which  are  obvious  to  most  thinking  minds,  and  to 
point  out  hidden  principles  of  spiritual  law  which  when 
fully  understood  will  undoubtedly  open  up  new  wavs 
of  supply.  Not  only  does  fear  paralyze  the  faculties 
of  man,  but  there  are  numerous  indications,  not  only 
^  the  sacred  scriptures  but  in  the  experience  of  many 
who  have  experimented  in  matters  pertaining  to  higher 
and  comparatively  unknown  laws  of  the  spiritual 
world,  that  fear  acts  in  a  manner  resembling  the  effect 
of  insulation  with  respect  to  an  electrical  current.  It 
seems  to  check  the  influx  of  the  Divine  into  our  lives, 
as  it  seeks  to  enter  in  its  various  tangible  expressions. 
On  the  other  hand,  there  is  every  indication  that  faith, 
its  positive  opposite,  of  which  fear  is  simply  the 
absence,  opens  up  the  channels  of  the  Divine  inflow 
of  substance,  invisible  and  visible.  “Impossible,”  says 


38  FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 

the  eminently  hard-headed  and  practical  man  of  the 
world,  as  he  has  always  said  in  the  face  of  new  dis¬ 
coveries  or  rediscoveries,  from  time  immemorial. 
Nevertheless,  the  average  man  would  be  surprised  to 
learn  how  overwhelming  is  the  testimony  of  great  and 
recognized  seers,  ancient  and  modern,  to  the  existence 
of  such  higher  laws,  waiting  to  be  mastered  by  man, 
through  faith.  In  fact,  it  is  impossible  to  find  a  logical 
explanation  of  many  of  the  Great  Master’s  sayings  and 
deeds  on  any  other  basis.  We  shall  examine  several 
instances  as  we  proceed. 

Not  only  do  we  find,  from  our  experience,  that 
faith  intensifies  every  faculty  of  our  being,  and  that  in 
some  mysterious  way  it  opens  up  opportunities  and 
means  through  apparently  natural  avenues  of 
approach,  which  constantly  accumulating  evidence  con¬ 
vinces  us  could  not  otherwise  have  come  save  through 
faith  and  prayer,  but  we  are  led,  furthermore,  to 
believe,  partly  through  our  intuitive  perception  of 
Reality,  partly  on  the  authority  of  the  Bible  and  other 
sources  presenting  instances  of  the  principles  in 
question  and  constantly  being  proven  accurate  in  other 
applications,  and  partly  through  recourse  to  striking 
analogies  found  in  the  progressive,  dematerialized, 
“physical”  science  of  the  day,  that  a  further  under¬ 
standing  of  the  law,  will  bring  us  eventually  to  a 
mental  and  spiritual  control  over  matter  that  will 
duplicate  the  “miracles”  of  the  Master,  according  to 
his  most  positive  and  explicit  affirmation.  There  are 
many  evidences  that  metaphysics  is  the  coming  science 


OVERCOMING  FAILURE 


39 


and  that  this  science,  wedded  to  a  rejuvenated 
theology,  will  give  birth  to  a  new  order  of  life. 

Out  of  the  numerous  instances  of  the  Master’s 
advanced  control  of  matter,  we  select  the  two  appro¬ 
priate  in  this  connection  because  of  the  application  of 
His  inner  knowledge  and  power  to  the  supply  of  food 
and  drink.  We  refer  to  the  production  of  wine  at  the 
wedding  feast  and  to  the  multiplication  of  the  loaves 
and  fishes  in  the  feeding  of  the  multitude.  It  is  not 
our  purpose,  in  this  brief  work,  to  go  into  exhaustive 
detail  concerning  the  modus  operandi  of  these  so- 
called  miracles.  We  only  offer  suggestions  to  be 
‘worked  out  later.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  the  Master  as 
perfect  man,  with  all  the  potentialities  of  Deity  opera¬ 
tive  in  Him,  cooperated  with  the  higher  law,  and  with 
the  faith-faculty,  the  imaging  faculty,  and  the  will, 

all  at  their  highest  pinnacle  of  concentrated  power, _ 

precipitated  the  elements  of  the  wine  or  food  from  the 
mysterious  ether — so  close  to  Spirit  in  its  essence, — 
the  invisible  substance  out  of  which  all  visible  things 
proceed  by  the  fixed  laws  of  the  Universal  Mind,  in 
which  we  are  centers  of  creative  energy.  To  men  of 
clear  vision  and  keen  mind,  the  underlying  truth  of 
this  proposition  is  apparent  and  holds  in  store  great 
things  for  man.  If  this  direct  application  of  the  law 
is  not  immediately  feasible,  it  at  least  encourages  us  to 
go  on  in  our  investigation  and  in  at  least  partial 
application  along  the  higher  spiritual  lines,  for  immedi¬ 
ate  use.  It  shows  the  way  along  which  ultimate  salva¬ 
tion  lies,  in  every  department  of  our  life.  “Seek  first 


40  FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 

the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  and  all  these  things  shall  be 
added  unto  you.” 

In  referring  to  science,  we  find  much  to  help  us  in 
grasping  these  principles  in  the  drift  of  present  day 
investigation,  not  to  mention  the  intuitive  insight  of 
many  of  the  ancient  scientists — long  before  the  pass¬ 
ing  phase  of  later-day  materialism.  Anaxagoras  of 
old  declared  mind  to  be  the  originating  and  controlling 
force  of  the  universe.  Heraclitus  said  that  the  uni¬ 
verse  is  in  a  state  of  flux.  Today  our  scientists  are 
positing  the  play  of  a  universal  mind  in  the  midst  of 
the  phenomena  of  the  universe.  They  have  proven  the 
plastic  nature  of  matter  by  showing  that  one  element 
can  be  transformed  into  another.  They  have  shown 
that  the  ultimate  constitution  of  matter  is  electrical 
energy.  Psychologists  are  demonstrating  the  limitless 
powers  of  the  mind  and  its  close  relation  to  the 
Universal  Mind,  which  is  God.  It  has  been  shown 
that,  the  mind  exerts  an  actual  influence  on  matter, 
capable  of  definite  registration.  Let  him  who  reads 
understand  the  deep  significance  of  all  this,  and  ponder 
the  wonders  that  are  soon  to  be.  Let  him  seek  life 
where  it  is  to  be  found,  that  he  may  cause  the  world 
to  be  abundantly  blessed. 

In  connection  with  fear,  we  have  already  referred 
to  the  fact  that  there  is  within  our  reach  and  at  our 
command,  the  inexhaustible  resources  of  the  divine 
supply  from  the  One  Source,  manifesting  itself  visibly 
through  many  channels,  according  to  law.  We  have 
indicated  that  this  Source  is  tapped  by  faith;  that 
because  of  His  supreme  faith  the  Master  knew  no 


OVERCOMING  FAILURE 


4i 


failure  of  supply.  To  illustrate  further,  in  the 
instance  of  the  so-called  miraculous  draught  of  fishes 
and  in  that  of  the  coin  found  in  the  fishes  mouth,  we 
have  a  demonstration  of  the  operating  of  this  law 
of  inner  attraction,  or  gravity  on  the  spiritual  plane, 
whereby  the  individual  mind-center  may  draw  to  itself 
out  of  the  spiritual  realm  of  causation  centered  in 
the.  Universal  Mind,  the  things  that  it  requires  and 
desires  mightily  for  its  development  and  unfoldment, 
made  possible  by  the  energizing  force  of  its  faith. 
The  Master  carried  about  no  personal  belongings  for 
his  own  needs  or  for  those  of  others.  The  explanation 
is  that  He  was  so  fully  the  master  of  the  law  of 
spiritual  attraction  and  abundance  that  at  any  moment 
of  need,  He  could  at  once  draw  upon  the  Infinite 
Source  of  all  supply.  He  meant  that  we  should  ulti¬ 
mately  follow  Him  in  the  Way.  Therefore  we  would 
do  well  to  heed  the  counsel  of  the  Wisdom  writer, — 
“with  all  thy  getting,  get  understanding.” 

These  considerations  bring  us  very  close  to  the  key 
for  the  solution  of  our  problem  of  social  poverty. 
Only  a  few  unseeing  ones  still  regard  poverty  as  a 
divine  institution.  We  know  that  the  Divine  Love  has 
put  abundance  of  life  in  all  its  expressions  within 
reach  of  all.  The  Giver  of  every  good  gift  seeks  to 
express  Himself  in  terms  of  abundance  in  the  life  of 
everyone.  In  the  Father’s  house  there  is  enough  and 
to  spare  for  all.  Conditions  are  as  they  are  because 
we  have  not  yet  learned  the  secret  of  living.  More¬ 
over,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  determining  factor 
in  the  making  of  abundance  or  of  lack  in  a  man’s  life 


42 


FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 


is  the  trend  of  his  own  inner  life,  yet  this  does  not 
exonerate  the  greed  and  social  injustice  that  is  in 
some  way  related  to  it.  We  are  all  bound  up  in  the 
bundle  of  life  together,  and  the  conditions  of  the 
individual  and  of  the  corporate  life  act  and  react,  the 
one  upon  the  other.  The  problem  is  complex  but  there 
is  a  relationship  between  the  two,  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  a  man  is  free  to  rise  as  soon  as  he  yields  to  the 
God-urge ‘within  him. 

Be  this  as  it  may,  we  further  maintain  that  the 
present  pathetic  attempts  at  amelioration  of  individual 
and  social  life  through  the  external  application  of  this 
and  that  expedient  in  place  of  inner  transformation 
through  application  of  spiritual  principles  is  indeed 
hopeless  and  doomed  to  failure.  We  recognize  the 
good  in  every  well-meaning  effort  to  help  by  means  of 
“charity,”  social  programs  and  other  pallatives,  and 
we  see  them  as  imperfect  expressions  of  the  divine 
love  in  the  heart  of  man,  but  we  seek  to  point  the  way 
to  a  spiritual  transfiguration  so  wrought  into  the  heart 
and  consciousness  of  man  as  to  transform  the  face  of 
the  whole  world,  and  bring  in  the  new  heaven  and  the 
new  earth,  with  all  social,  industrial,  and  political 
problems  vanished  into  thin  air.  A  beginning  will  be 
made  when  men  begin  to  see  the  folly  of  their  present 
efforts  in  pursuit  of  worldly  ends,  as  nations  and  as 
individuals,  and  even  the  futility  of  attempting  to 
change  their  ways  by  merely  human  devices.  When 
they  can  be  made  to  see  the  great  ends  and  aim  of 
the  Divine  Plan,  when  they  can  be  made  to  under¬ 
stand  and  employ  the  wonderful  laws  whereby  every 


OVERCOMING  FAILURE 


43 


child  and  family  of  God  can  satisfy  its  heart’s  desire 
without  recourse  to  the  blind  folly  of  feverish  effort, 
strife  and  warfare,  and  indeed  that  these  paths  lead 
to  death  rather  than  to  life,  then  the  great  day  will 
dawn  in  all  its  glorious  splendor.  So  exalted  will  be 
the  soul  of  man  in  his  new-found  joy  and  power  born 
of  high  fellowship  with  the  Eternal  One  and  with  his 
brother-man,  that  his  heart  will  be  touched  to  finer 
issues  than  those  concerning  his  satiety  with  the  mere 
things  that  bring  no  peace ;  that  each  man’s  good  shall 
be  each  man’s  rule,  and  the  Father’s  Kingdom  with  its 
abundant  riches  will  have  come  into  manifestation. 
This  is  the  royal  way;  this  is  the  only  way. 

MEDITATION 

“Wherefore,  if  God  so  clothe  the  grass  of  the  field, 
shall  he  not  much  more  clothe  you?” 

“But  seek  ye  first  the  Kingdom  of  God  and  His 
Righteousness  and  all  these  things  shall  be  added  unto 
you.” 

“Whatsoever  ye  shall  ask  in  My  name,  that  will  He 
give  you.”  “According  to  your  faith  be  it  unto  you.” 

“God  shall  supply  all  your  need,  according  to  His 
riches  in  glory.” 

“All  things  are  yours.” 

“The  Lord  is  my  shepherd,  I  shall  not  want.”  “My 
cup  runneth  over.”  “Praise  God  from  whom  all 
blessings  flow.” 


Be  still  and  know  that  I  am  God,  the  One  Source  of 
all  abundance  in  the  midst  of  thee. 


44  FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 


SILENCE 

Know  surely  that  My  whole  Universe  is  responsive  to 
the  potent  demands  of  faith,  according  to  the  universal 
law  of  Mind. 


“It  is  your  Father’s  good  pleasure  to  give  you  the 
Kingdom.”  “According  to  your  faith,  be  it  unto  you.” 


I  cast  my  burden  on  the  Lord,  resting  in  sure  confi¬ 
dence  on  the  perfect  law,  whereby  the  abundant  riches 
of  the  Love  Divine  provide  me  and  mine. 


CHAPTER  V 


Overcoming  Sin 

Temptations  to  indulge  the  sense-nature  and  hinder 
our  own  and  other’s  spiritual  transfiguration  and 
mastery  of  life  abound.  The  first  step  in  overcoming 
carnal  sin,  or  the  uncontrolled  thoughts  of  the  mind 
and  perverted  imagination  directed  toward  mere 
fleshly  gratification,  is  a  deeper  understanding  of  the 
problem  and  a  knowledge  of  the  nature  of  such  “sin.” 

In  the  first  place  much  impetus  is  given  to  such 
impulses  by  the  conventional  moral  attitude  toward 
the  problem.  The  very  implication  that  the  body  and 
its  functions  are  in  themselves  essentially  evil  tends 
to  produce  a  perverted  idea  and  hence  a  perverted 
functioning  along  these  lines.  All  that  pertains  to 
the  generative  function,  for  instance,  should  be 
exalted  in  our  thought  to  a  manifestation  on  the 
physical  plane  of  the  Divine  Creative  Energy  of  the 
Universe,  and  therefore  sacred.  An  opposite  attitude 
tends  to  awaken  in  the  “sinner”  a  rebellious  spirit 
toward  the  so-called  spiritual  life. 

In  the  second  place,  an  attempt  at  direct  suppression 
of  this  divine  urge  within,  which  must  find  expression 
in  some  way,  is  psychologically  hopeless  and  harmful. 

If  this  urge  from  within,  even  on  the  lower  plane  of 

45 


4 6  FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 


our  being,  is  not  essentially  bad,  but  part  of  the  Divine 
Order,  wherein  is  the  sin?  It  lies  in  the  perversion  of 
the  function,  first  in  thought,  then  in  deed.  All  sin, 
as  the  derivation  of  the  word  indicates,  involves  a 
“missing  the  mark,”  or  falling  short.  Emerson  says 
that  all  sin  is  limitation.  In  other  words  the  one  who 
is  trying  to  “see  life,”  as  they  say,  must  be  led  to  see 
that  he  has  taken  the  wrong  road  and  is  doomed  to 
disappointment;  that  he  is  missing  “the  life  more 
abundant”  which  can  come  only  through  a  balanced 
coordination  of  forces  on  every  plane  of  his  being, 
with  the  bodily  being  under  the  control  and  mastery 
of  the  spiritual  man.  Only  this  order  of  things  can 
bring  life  and  freedom;  any  other  can  mean  nothing 
but  the  most  abject  and  paralysing  slavery. 

If  attempt  at  mere  suppression  is  wrong,  driving 
the  impulse  within,  only  to  issue  later  with  renewed 
force  after  producing  a  harmful  inner  conflict,  then 
the  attempt  at  proper  expression  and  legitimate  satis¬ 
faction  is  the  right  and  normal  method. 

We  are  not  to  despise  the  “sinner,”  but  look  upon 
him  sympathetically  and  with  understanding — as  did 
the  Great  Master — and  regard  him  as  one  not  essenti¬ 
ally  bad,  but  struggling  up  to  the  divine,  howbeit  still 
on  a  comparatively  low  plane  of  development.  Even 
the  “bad”  in  him  is  but  a  perverted  expression  of  the 
good  in  him  striving  to  perfection.  If  at  his  stage  of 
development,  it  seems  most  natural  for  the  divine  urge 
to  find  expression  on  the  physical  plane,  let  us  guide 
him  or  help  him  to  guide  himself  into  the  proper  and 
legitimate  channels  of  expression  in  ways  that  seem 


OVERCOMING  SIN 


47 


to  work  no  physical  or  spiritual  harm  to  himself  or 
to  others  nor  to  undermine  the  imperfect  but  as  yet 
highest  social  order  we  are  building  for  the  greatest 
possible  spiritual  unfoldment  of  all.  This  channel  is 
to  be  found  in  the  normal  relations  of  true  spiritual 
love  in  the  married  state.  In  the  meanwhile  let  him 
bend  every  effort  toward  bringing  his  physical  being 
under  the  control  of  the  soul  and  to  subordinate  even 
its  legitimate  expressions  to  the  development  of  the 
man  in  the  higher  reaches  of  his  being,  that  he  may 
begin  to  function  wholly  from  the  Christ-center.  Let 
the  same  Divine  Creative  Energy  be  turned  more  and 
more  into  such  channels  as  will  regenerate  soul  and 
body  and  render  him  a  medium  for  the  regeneration 
of  humanity.  The  Divine  Energy  may  be  turned 
soulward,  finding  expression  in  Divine  Communion 
and  an  outlet  in  the  creative  working  of  mind,  heart, 
and  hand  for  humanity’s  service.  Wrong  ideas,  then, 
concerning  the  divine  urge  as  it  touches  our  physical 
being,  its  perversion  into  mere  unrestrained  lust  with¬ 
out  relation  to  the  spiritual  side  of  our  nature,  and 
misguided  attempts  at  suppression  rather  than  at 
proper  expression  on  a  higher  plane,  are  the  chief 
causes  of  what  we  may  term  carnal  sin.  Again,  let 
us  remember  that  the  impulses  to  sin  are  not  in  the 
flesh  itself,  which  of  itself  has  no  life,  but  are  lodged 
in  the  subconscious  mind  which  produces  and  directs 
the  body.  Truly  “we  fight  not  against  flesh  and 
blood,”  but  against  unseen  forces  in  the  mind.  Their 
tremendous  strength  is  the  result  of  race-thoughts 
engendered  through  countless  generations  of  sense- 


48  FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 


consciousness,  reinforced  by  suggestions  from  per¬ 
sonal  experience. 

Now  how  can  we  conquer  these  unseen  forces  in 
the  mind?  To  try  to  coerce  one  into  continuity  to 
certain  moral  standards  without  interpreting  their 
existence  or  showing  any  foundation  for  them  beyond 
their  long-standing  and  well-nigh  universal  acceptance, 
or  to  frighten  one  into  obedience  to  the  arbitrary 
commands  of  a  tyrannical,  celestial  Sovereign  such 
as  God  was  misrepresented  to  be  in  the  old  theology, 
is  a  hopeless  and  a  useless  task.  If  we  can  relate  them 
to  the  universal  scheme  of  things  and  thereby  make 
an  appeal  to  the  reason  and  the  heart,  it  is  another 
matter.  We  have  already  suggested  such  an  interpre¬ 
tation,  but  now  we  proceed  to  offer  some  practical 
hint  for  application. 

First,  we  must  bring  men  to  a  profound  conscious¬ 
ness  of  their  own  divinity.  There  is  a  great  truth 
in  the  couplet — 

“Know  this,  O  man,  sole  root  of  sin  in  thee 

Is  not  to  know  thine  own  divinity.” 

Truly  sin  is  limitation,  and  first  of  all,  a  limitation 
in  die  realm  of  mind,  a  limited  state  of  consciousness. 
It  is  a  psychological  fact  that  if  we  continually  bear 
in  mind  the  thought  of  being  miserable  sinners,  that 
we  are  hopelessly  limited  in  our  capacity  for  express¬ 
ing  divinity,  it  will  be  to  us  according  to  our  thought. 
The  consciousness  of  our  divine  possibilities  will 
afford  us  all  the  sense  of  having  fallen  short  that 
we  need,  and  it  will  be  much  more  real  and  conduc- 


OVERCOMING  SIN 


49 


tive  to  good  than  is  the  thought  that  we  are  just 
naturally  now  and  forever  miserable  sinners.  To  keep 
the  latter  thought  continually  to  the  fore  is  positively 
a  psychological  and  theological  crime.  To  point  men 
to  the  goal  of  perfection  in  every  department  of  their 
being  and  to  give  them  the  sublime  assurance  of  the 
possibility  of  its  attainment,  is  to  open  a  veritable 
stream  of  power  working  to  its  fulfillment.  The  only 
cure  for  this  self-consciousness  or  sense-consciousness 
and  its  unwholesome  concomitants,  then,  is  God-con¬ 
sciousness.  “Know  ye  not  that  ye  are  the  Temple  of 
God,  and  that  the  Spirit  of  God  dwelleth  in  you.” 

The  knowledge  of  this  wondrous,  glorious  truth 
concerning  our  being  will  of  itself  work  a  marvellous 
transformation  in  ourselves  and  others.  By  our  faith 
which  sees  that  hidden  image  of  God  beneath  the  un¬ 
lovely  surface  of  others  and  by  our  love,  we  help  to 
bring  that  image  out.  Our  prayer  of  higher  faith  is 
the  most  potent  influence  of  all  in  effecting  the  trans¬ 
formation.  As  we  rise  to  this  glorious  God-conscious¬ 
ness,  and  the  higher  faculties  of  the  soul  unfold,  the 
cravings  of  the  spirit  demand  satisfaction  from  the 
Wine  of  Heaven  and  in  Communion  with  the  Divine 
Spirit,  and  on  the  good  but  lower  and  imperfect  plane 
only  incidentally,  if  at  all.  The  earthly  expression 
is  but  a  symbol,  a  shadow  of  the  heavenly.  Those 
who  are  seeking  “life”  in  the  far  country,  on  the 
things  that  perish  and  on  which  the  soul  can  never 
be  satisfied,  are  all  the  while  unconsciously,  blindly, 
groping  after  the  unspeakable  joys  of  the  Spirit.  That 
is  one  reason  why  we  do  not  condemn  them,  but  with 


50  FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 


infinite  sympathy  seek  to  lead  them  on  to  the  over¬ 
whelming  ecstacies  of  the  heavenly  realm,  apparently 
so  elusive,  so  distant,  but  ever  in  our  midst,  could  we 
but  release  ourselves  from  the  prison  of  the  senses  and 
open  the  sight  of  the  soul  upon  its  shining  shores.  The 
Real  man  of  us  knows  this  to  be  true  as  we  contem¬ 
plate  it,  however  the  world-man  in  us  may  rebel  and 
remonstrate.  The  real  man  of  us  does  not  demand 
sense-satisfaction.  Indeed  there  is  no  such  satisfac¬ 
tion.  The  only  satisfaction  there  is,  is  to  be  found 
in  the  Spirit,  in  the  eternal  communion  of  our  spirit 
with  the  Universal  Spirit,  which  is  God, — a  satisfac¬ 
tion  perfect,  absolute,  full. 

Many  are  the  frenzied  devotees  of  the  false-god  of 
Pleasure.  The  mad  pursuit  of  pleasure,  the  pleasure 
of  the  senses,  absorbs  all  their  interest.  Deep  down  in 
their  hearts  they  seek  true  happiness;  they  feel  that 
happiness  is  their  right,  and  so  it  is.  But  in  pursuing 
the  path  of  mere  pleasure,  they  are  chasing  a  mere 
phantom.  That  way  true  happiness  lies  not.  True 
happiness  never  comes  to  us  through  the  avenue  of 
the  senses.  Man  is  so  constituted  as  a  spiritual  being 
that  he  can  never  find  abiding  satisfaction  in  the 
things  that  perish.  Men  have  sought  to  find  happi¬ 
ness  someway  outside  of  themselves,  in  the  material 
world.  It  cannot  be.  True  happiness  is  ever  found 
within,  in  the  riches  and  fellowship  and  freedom  and 
joy  of  the  inner  kingdom  of  the  Spirit.  Happiness 
always  has  a  way  of  eluding  those  who  seek  it  as  an 
end  in  itself.  It  is  a  by-product  of  the  search  for 
Truth  and  real  Life  in  the  spirit  of  love  and  service. 


OVERCOMING  SIN 


5i 


Normal,  wholesome  pleasures  of  a  recreational 
character  have  their  place,  and  that  a  subordinate 
place,  but  in  this  connection  we  recall  the  striking 
words  of  a  certain  epigram — “Do  not  let  the  good 
things  of  life  rob  you  of  the  best  things  of  life.” 
The  things  of  character,  the  things  of  the  Divine 
Kingdom,  the  fruits  of  the  Spirit,  these  are  the  things 
that  endure  for  Eternity.  Seek  first  the  Kingdom  of 
God  and  his  Righteousness.  That  is  the  way  to  the 
fulfillment  of  the  heart’s  desire. 

The  thought  of  our  divinity,  of  our  relation  to  the 
God  who  dwells  within  us,  who  is  striving  to  realize 
the  fulness  of  His  life  in  us  and  whose  Spirit  we 
would  not  grieve  even  as  we  would  not  break  the 
heart  of  a  dear  earthly  parent  by  our  failure,  together 
with  the  thought  of  true  satisfaction  being  in  the 
Spirit, — all  these  borne  thoughtfully  in  mind  may  act 
as  powerful  suggestions  in  the  subconscious  to 
counteract  the  sense-conscious  thoughts  which,  if  al¬ 
lowed  to  grow,  will  issue  in  a  life  of  evil  and  produce 
the  seeds  of  death.  Unnatural  lust,  apart  from  actual 
physical  taint,  is  responsible  for  a  vast  proportion 
of  human  ailments  and  defects. 

Ordinary  effort  and  resolution  may  be  of  little 
avail,  but  if  with  the  senses  stilled,  we  will  in  the 
silence  of  our  hearts  rise  above  the  visible  plane  to 
the  plane  of  the  Universal  where  the  fulness  of  life 
prevails  forever,  and  there  come  into  conscious, 
dynamic  communion  with  God,  we  make  actual  con¬ 
tact  with  the  omnipotent  Power  of  the  Universe,  which 
dwells  within,  in  the  depths  of  our  own  inner  being, 


52  FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 


and  self-conquered  and  Christ-centered,  we  rise  to  go 
forth  in  our  God-given  might  to  show  the  world  the 
way  to  spiritual  emancipation,  to  the  glorious  liberty 
of  the  full-grown  sons  and  daughters  of  God,  with 
every  faculty  of  the  soul,  mind  and  body  developed  to 
the  utmost.  The  real  man  has  been  given  the  mastery 
over  his  lower  nature,  and  has  brought  the  whole 
strength  of  God  to  bear  on  the  temptation  to  surrender 
that  dominion,  to  forfeit  that  glorious  birth-right  for 
a  mess  of  pottage. 


MEDITATIONS 

(Let  ideal  conditions  for  receptivity  be  furnished. 
Find  a  quiet  and  peaceful  retreat,  with  ennobling  and 
inspiring  suggestions  about,  if  possible,  in  the  form 
of  fine  pictures  or  landscape.  Receive  their  message. 
By  means  of  a  short  inspirational  reading,  soft  music, 
or  the  sound  of  a  murmuring  brook,  let  the  emotional 
tide  run  high.  Direct  it  into  desired  channels  by  for¬ 
getting  the  body  and  stilling  the  senses.  With  body 
relaxed  and  eyes  fixed  on  some  object  or  better,  per¬ 
haps,  with  the  eyes  closed  and  the  gaze  turned  inward, 
so  to  speak,  concentrate  calmly  but  intently  on  the 
spiritual  world  within.  Sense  its  glory  and  power  and 
feed  consciously  on  the  fulness  of  its  life.  Commune 
with  the  Christ  at  its  center.  Then  merge  consciously 
in  the  Universal  Life  centered  there  and  let  the  love 
of  the  Spirit  go  out  to  all  therein. 

Realize  the  perfection  of  your  real  life  hid  with 
Christ  in  God.  Visualize  your  every  day  life  in  perfect 
conformity  and  correspondence  with  that  real  and 
divine  life  of  yours  within.  Praise  the  Eternal  One 


OVERCOMING  SIN 


53 


for  the  perfect  satisfactions  of  the  heavenly  Bread  and 
Communion,  and  for  the  absolute  harmony  and 
dominion  that  is  given  to  you.  Picture  the  splendid 
productions  in  your  work  for  humanity,  into  which 
your  creative  genius  is  to  be  directed. 

The  hour  before  retiring,  the  early  morning  hour 
and  the  hour  of  spiritual  exaltation,  are  seasons  offer¬ 
ing  aspecially  favorable  opportunities  for  these 
exercises.) 

I  open  my  mind  to  thoughts  of  good  and  purity  only. 
My  divine  birthright  as  a  child  of  the  Most  High  is 
a  glorious  dominion  over  self.  I  know  the  Truth  about 
myself  as  a  spiritual  being  demanding  spiritual  satis¬ 
faction  which  I  have  always  in  the  Spirit,  and  the 
Truth  has  made  me  free  from  miserable  slavery  to 
the  domination  of  the  flesh.  I  utterly  reject  all 
thoughts  of  evil,  seeking  admission  where  they  have 
no  right.  I  decree  that  they  shall  have  no  power  over 
me.  I  am  master  of  my  own  mental  Kingdom.  By 
the  Eternal,  I  can,  I  must,  I  will !  God  is  my  strength. 
The  victory  is  mine,  for  I  am  one  with  the  One  Power 
in  the  Universe,  God. 

The  Energy  of  the  Spirit  is  released  through  my  be¬ 
ing,  filling  and  regenerating  mind,  soul,  and  body,  and 
issuing  in  God’s  creative  thoughts  to  be  expressed  in 
my  work  for  humanity.  The  heavenly  harmony  of  the 
Christ^mind  is  manifesting  itself  in  energy,  peace  and 
perfect  satisfaction.  I  am  being  filled  with  all  the  ful¬ 
ness  of  God,  through  Christ  who  is  my  Life.  Amen. 


Be  still  and  know  that  I  am  God,  the  source  of  all 
fulness  of  life,  within  thee. 


54  FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 

SILENCE 

(Repeat  prayer  under  meditations  for  overcoming 
Fear,  with  special  intention  in  reference  to  lower  im¬ 
pulses.) 


“Know  ye  not  that  your  body  is  the  temple  of  God, 
and  that  the  Spirit  of  God  dwelleth  in  you.” 

“Know  ye  not  that  your  body  is  the  temple  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  which  is  in  you,  which  ye  have  of  God,  and 
ye  are  not  your  own.” 

“Grieve  not  the  Spirit  of  God.” 

“It  is  the  Spirit  that  quickeneth,  the  flesh  profiteth 
nothing.” 

“To  be  carnally-minded  is  death,  to  be  spiritually 
minded  is  life  and  peace.” 

“He  that  drinketh  of  the  water  that  I  shall  give  him, 
shall  have  in  him  a  well  of  water  springing  up  into 
everlasting  life.” 

“I  am  come  that  they  might  have  life  and  that  they 
might  have  it  more  abundantly.” 

“God  created  man  in  his  own  image.” 

“Be  ye  perfect  even  as  your  Father  which  is  in 
heaven  is  perfect.” 

“Christ  in  you  the  hope  of  glory.” 

“Cast  your  burden  upon  the  Lord  and  He  shall  bring 
it  to  pass.” 

“With  God,  all  things  are  possible.” 

“I  can  do  all  things  through  Christ  which  strength¬ 
ened  me.” 

“Take  unto  you  the  whole  armor  of  God,  and  having 
done  all,  stand !” 

“But  we  all,  with  open  face  beholding  as  in  a  glass 
the  glory  of  the  Lord,  are  changed  into  the  same  im- 


OVERCOMING  SIN 


55 


age  from  glory  to  glory  even  as  by  the  Spirit  of  the 
Lord.” 

“  ‘And  I  heard  a  low  voice  calling, 

‘Come  up  higher,  come  up  higher/ 

From  the  lowland  and  the  mire, 

From  the  vain  pursuit  of  pelf, 

From  the  attitude  of  self : 

‘Come  up  higher,  come  up  higher/  ” 

“Onward,  souls  eternal, 

Rise  in  Spirit’s  might, 

Rise  to  endless  glory, 

Power  and  majesty.” 


CHAPTER  VI 


Overcoming  Sickness 

It  is  now  our  purpose  to  apply  the  principle  of  faith 
to  the  vitally  important  work  of  overcoming  sickness. 
Time  was  when  sickness,  like  poverty,  was  regarded 
as  a  divine  institution.  There  are  still  to  be  found 
some  unthinking  souls  who  insist  upon  the  sanctitv 
of  physical  misery,  and  who  regard  sickness  as  ordained 
of  God.  They  are  not  always  consistent,  however,  as 
they  call  in  the  aid  of  medicine,  thus  apparently  run¬ 
ning  counter  to  the  divine  will.  The  divine  purpose 
for  us  all  can  be  only  fulness  of  life  through  all  our 
being,  and  if  there  is  any  reality  in  faith  and  prayer, 
it  ought  to  be  efficacious  in  the  work  of  healing  our 
ailments,  enabling  us  to  be  efficient  instruments  in 
fulfilling  the  purpose  of  the  Divine  Spirit 

The  work  of  overcoming  sickness  is  the  work  of 
overcoming  obstacles  or  inhibitions  in  the  way  of  the 
operations  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  which  is  the  Spirit  of 
Holiness  or  Wholeness.  The  Life  of  God,  which  is 
in  us,  is  the  original  or  essential  principle  of  Health. 
The  vibrations  of  mind  and  body  must  be  raised  into 
harmony  with  those  of  the  Divine  Life.  In  order  to 
overcome  the  hindrances  to  the  free  operation  of  the 
principle  of  health,  which  in  the  last  analysis  is  the 


OVERCOMING  SICKNESS 


5  7 


very  Life  of  God,  we  shall  now  take  up  the  funda¬ 
mental  principles  of  spiritual  healing.  In  this  term, 
we  here  include  mental  healing,  which  is  intimately 
related,  but  we  shall  see  that,  strictly  speaking,  we 
must  distinguish  between  ordinary  mental  healing  and 
pure  spiritual  healing,  however  intimately  related  they 
may  be. 

We  have  witnessed  the  dawn  of  a  great  spiritual 
awakening.  History  records  that  every  new  mani¬ 
festation  of  spiritual  power  is  accompanied  by  healing 
faith  and  works.  The  Master  himself,  in  sending 
the  disciples  out  upon  their  mission,  gave  them  the 
two-fold  command:  “Preach  the  gospel  and  heal  the 
sick.”  Indeed,  these  two  activities,  in  their  full  and 
genuine  expression,  are  inseparably  connected.  The 
awakened  and  wide-spread  interest  in  spiritual  healing 
is  a  sign  of  the  times,  witnessing  to  the  rebirth  of 
a  more  profound  and  comprehensive  religion.  It 
marks  a  return  to  the  reality  and  vitality  of  the 
Apostolic  Faith  and  no  doubt  at  the  same  time  to  an 
advance,  under  the  promised  guidance  of  the  Spirit, 
to  even  a  deeper  penetration  into  the  inner  principles 
of  life,  understood  and  employed  by  the  Apostles  in 
the  early  days  of  Christianity.  There  are  many  evi¬ 
dences  that  we  are  witnessing  the  dawn  of  the  greatest 
age  of  faith  that  the  world  has  ever  known,  and  it 
therefore  follows  necessarily  the  greatest  age  of 
healing  “miracles.” 

On  every  hand  is  the  way  being  prepared  for  these 
healing  works,  for  not  only  are  our  spiritual  seers 
proclaiming  the  supremacy  of  mind  and  spirit,  but 


58  FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 

indeed  our  natural  scientists  are  showing  that  all 
matter,  including  that  of  our  bodies,  is  a  form.  or 
expression  of  energy,  electrical  in  its  constitution, 
and  many  working  on  the  border-line  between  science 
and  philosophy,  as  Bergson,  are  approaching  the  con¬ 
clusion  that  the  Source  of  that  energy  is  Mind,  and 
that  energy  which  is  the  basis  of  our  bodies  is  essenti¬ 
ally  a  mind-energy.  Again,  those  who  are  studying 
the  nature  of  man,  are  coming  to  recognize  man,,  in 
his  three-fold  nature,  as  a  unit.  Men  are  beginning 
to  realize  that  if  faith  is  a  real  force  at  all,  it  must 
touch  man  in  every  phase  of  his  being.  They  are 
demanding  a  religion  that  works,  in  every  department 

of  life. 

In  order  to  establish  a  foundation  for  what  we  may 
call,  in  the  broader  sense  of  the  word,  spiritual  heal¬ 
ing,  we  shall  begin  by  considering  the  first  principles 
pertaining  to  the  subconscious  mind,  with  special  ref¬ 
erence  to  healing  through  suggestion.  Though  one 
may  have  advanced  to  a  deeper  understanding  of  the 
mysteries  of  the  kingdom,  thus  being  enabled  to  ap¬ 
proach  the  principles  and  practice  from  a  higher  plane, 
nevertheless  an  understanding  of  the  principles  in  their 
application  to  the  lower  sphere  of  mere  mental  healing 
cannot  but  increase  one  s  grasp  of  the  subject  and  his 
efficiency  in  practice.  Moreover,  this  approach  by  the 
path  of  the  psychologist  is  helpful  in  bridging  the  gap 
for  those  who  are  feeling  their  way  from  pure 
materialistic  thought  to  the  higher  principles  of  the 
Divine  Kingdom. 

As  we  have  indicated  before,  the  most  promising 


OVERCOMING  SICKNESS 


59 


advance  in  the  sciences  has  been  along  the  line  of 
recent  psychological  investigation.  This  investigation 
has  only  scratched  the  surface  of  things,  so  to  speak, 
but  it  has  at  least  revealed  to  us  the  possibilities  in 
store  for  us  if  we  will  seek  to  follow  the  ancient  adage, 
'‘Know  thyself.”  Heretofore  we  have  remained  in 
profound  ignorance  concerning  the  inner  workings  of 
our  minds.  Now  we  know  something  of  the  com¬ 
plexity  of  the  human  mind.  We  understand  that 
beneath  the  surface  mind,  the  ordinary  every-day  con¬ 
scious  mind,  there  is  the  mysterious,  sleepless  uncon¬ 
scious  mind,  largely  shaping  the  course  of  our  lives, 
and  ordinarily  referred  to  as  the  subconscious  mind. 
The  mind,  then,  may  be  likened  to  an  iceberg,  one- 
eighth  of  which  protrudes  above  the  surface  of  the 
water,  and  seven-eighths  of  which  remains  beneath 
the  surface  in  the  ocean-depths.  Navigators  do  well 
to  reckon  with  the  strength  and  movements  of  the 
whole  mass.  So  mariners  on  life’s  sea  will  be  more 
skilled  in  the  science  of  living  as  they  begin  to  take 
into  account  and  to  understand  the  whole  vast  mysteri¬ 
ous  region  of  the  mind  beneath  the  threshold  of  the 
ordinary  consciousness.  In  many  respects,  this  sub¬ 
conscious  mind,  otherwise  known  as  the  subjective 
mind,  seems  to  be  practically  identical  with  that  which 
the  Bible  refers  to  as  the  soul,  and  so  unlimited  do 
its  powers  appear  to  be  that  it  seems  at  times  to  merge 
with  a  larger  mind,  indeed  a  universal  mind ;  in  other 
words  it  links  us  with  God,  if  indeed  it  may  not  be 
said  to  be  part  of  that  Universal  mind. 

Perhaps  the  best  way  to  illuminate  those  who  are 


60  FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 

unfamiliar  with  the  subject,  with  the  ultimate  aim  of 
giving  them  a  clearer  understanding  of  its  action  in 
healing,  is  to  point  out  its  general  activities  in  a  few 
specific  instances.  In  the  first  place,  it  perceives  in¬ 
tuitively.  Such  powers  as  those  of  telepathy,  clair¬ 
voyance,  and  the  like,  which  are  latent  in  the  human 
mind,  are  connected  with  the  subconscious.  To  advise 
careful  medical  diagnosis  in  connection  with  our  heal¬ 
ing  may  be  a  wise  precautionary  measure  under  present 
primitive  knowledge,  but  it  must  not  be  overlooked 
that  our  subconscious  mind  has  the  ability  to  find  any 
malady  in  our  body,  as  well  as  to  find  its  cause  and 
cure.  Probably  it  would  be  more  accurate  to  say  that 
it  knows  it  already,  but  that  we  have  not  succeeded  in 
getting  our  conscious  mind  en  rapport  with  the  sub¬ 
conscious,  and  therefore  we  say  that  we  do  not  know 
what  is  the  matter  with  ourselves.  This  fact  opens  up 
great  possibilities  in  diagnosis  alone.  Secondly,  the 
subconscious  mind  reasons  deductively.  For  instance, 
it  does  not  arrive  at  an  hypothesis  for  some  natural 
law  by  the  empirical  methods  of  science,  but  works 
out  with  absolute  accuracy  a  logical  conclusion  from 
any  given  premises.  Then,  it  gives  expression  to  any 
impressions  received  by  it,  whether  pertaining  to  the 
moral,  physical  or  other  phase  of  our  life..  Again, 
the  subconscious  mind  is  the  seat  of  our  emotions,  and 
of  our  desires  and  instincts,  or  rather  our  instincts  may 
be  said  to  be  lodged  in  the  subconscious  and  the  desires 
that  arise  in  us,  arise  therefrom.  Lastly,  the  sub¬ 
conscious  mind  is  the  repository  of  the  memory. 
There  every  experience  is  recorded,  not  only  indi- 


OVERCOMING  SICKNESS 


61 


vidual  experiences  but  race  experiences.  These  func¬ 
tions  of  the  subconscious  mind  are  referred  to  in 
order  to  indicate  their  bearing  upon  the  work  of 
mental  healing. 

There  are,  however,  two  decisive  conclusions  which 
have  been  arrived  at  by  pioneer  students  in  the  field  of 
psychological  science,  which  afford  an  absolutely  sound 
and  unassailable  basis  for  mental  healing,  aside  from 
the  distinctly  spiritual  aspect  of  the  subject.  The  two 
fundamental  laws  are  as  follows :  first,  all  functions 
of  the  body  are  under  the  control  of  the  subconscious 
mind;  and  secondly,  the  subconscious  mind  is  under 
the  control  of  suggestion.  It  follows  that  the  func¬ 
tions  of  our  bodies  can  be  controlled  by  our  sugges¬ 
tions  if  we  can  make  them  sufficiently  powerful  to 
counteract  previous  suggestions. 

Let  us  consider  first  the  fact  that  all  the  bodily 
functions  are  under  the  control  of  the  subconscious 
mind.  Hitherto,  biologists  have  generally  thought  of 
the  vital  processes  as  purely  mechanical  processes, 
and  of  the  body'  as  a  sort  of  machine.  This 
view  is  no  longer  tenable.  Now  biologists  must  con¬ 
cede  that  these  processes  are  essentially  mind-pro¬ 
cesses.  What  we  have  already  learned  from  the  new 
psychology  clearly  demonstrates  that  the  subconscious 
mind  is  the  Divine  Spirit’s  medium  for  creating, 
building,  sustaining,  and  recreating  the  human  body. 
The  various  organs  of  the  body  originated  through 
the  work  of  the  subconscious  in  response  to  sugges¬ 
tion  from  without.  Physicians  have  testified  that 
about  two-thirds  of  the  cases  of  recovery  from  illness 


62  FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 


would  have  occurred  eventually  without  their  aid, 
and  this  is  so,  we  may  say,  because  of  the  recreative 
powers  of  the  subconscious  mind,  largely  victorious 
in  spite  of  many  adverse  suggestions  within  and  con¬ 
tinuing  to  enter  from  an  unfavorable  environment 
without.  One  can  readily  imagine  the  tremendous 
possibilities  to  be  realized  by  intelligent  cooperation 
of  the  conscious  mind  even  without  conscious  drawing 
upon  distinctly  spiritual  forces.  Well  authenticated 
stories  by  investigators  from  distant  lands  show  us 
how  advanced  control  of  the  forces  of  the  subcon¬ 
scious  can  annihilate  pain,  ward  off  injury  in  instances 
of  severe  gastronomic  tests,  and  prevent  the  flow 
of  blood  in  cases  of  severe  abrasions,  not  to  mention 
other  remarkable  supersedures  of  ordinary  laws,  out¬ 
side  of  the  field  of  healing.  We  are  at  once  led  to 
associate  such  accounts  with  the  principles  referred  to 
in  the  scriptural  passage  which  says: — “They  shall 
take  up  serpents;  and  if  they  drink  any  deadly  thing, 
it  shall  not  hurt  them.”  This,  of  course,  refers  to  a 
very  advanced  attainment  in  control,  somewhat  re¬ 
mote  from  our  own  present  stage  of  progress  in 
knowledge,  conscious  or  unconscious,  of  the  inner 
workings  of  the  mind. 

Again,  much  importance  is  being  attached  to  the 
inharmonious  functioning  of  the  ductless  glands  as 
a  cause  of  ill-health.  No  doubt  this  consideration 
lies  close  to  the  truth,  from  a  physical  standpoint. 
Of  course,  many  medical  men  hold  out  hope  of  great 
results  from  restoring  a  harmonious  function  by 
means  of  proper  injections  from  without.  There  is, 


OVERCOMING  SICKNESS 


63 


indeed,  a  material  process  corresponding  with  every 
inner  process.  The  Divine  operates  on  all  planes. 
Let  it  be  remembered,  however,  that  the  most  natural 
and  effective  treatment  may  be  given  through  aiding 
the  mind  to  recover  its  normal  control,  thereby  re¬ 
storing  perfect  harmony  throughout  the  entire  system, 
and  a  rightly  proportioned  production  of  all  the 
necessary  secretions  in  the  wonderful  inner  labora¬ 
tory  over  which,  normally,  the  unerring  Mind 
presides. 

The  second  law  is  that  this  subconscious  mind  is 
absolutely  amenable  to  suggestion.  Of  course,  the 
work  of  suggestion  is  ever  going  on,  like  the  work  of 
erosion  upon  the  hills  and  valleys.  Every  word  or 
experience  we  encounter  registers  itself  in  the  sub¬ 
conscious,  and  works  itself  out  into  a  visible  externali- 
zation  in  the  mental,  moral,  and  physical  life.  We 
often  make  use  of  the  power  of  suggestion  unwitt¬ 
ingly  as  when  a  parent  relieves  the  child’s  pain  by 
means  of  a  caress  or  by  the  soothing  tones  of  the  voice. 
Here,  however,  we  use  the  word  suggestion  in  refer¬ 
ring  to  a  definite  conscious  giving  of  an  idea  to  the  sub¬ 
conscious  mind  by  the  conscious  mind.  When  we  say 
that  the  action  of  the  subconscious  mind  upon  the  bodi¬ 
ly  processes  can  be  controlled  by  suggestion,  we  mean 
to  say  that  this  is  so  if  the  conditions  can  be  fulfilled. 
In  any  given  case,  the  situation  is  infinitely  complex. 
There  are  many  diverse  elements  to  be  reckoned  with. 
In  that  particular  mind  there  are  lodged  ideas  wrought 
in  by  the  deepest  experience  and  emotion,  and  there¬ 
fore  of  the  greatest  tenacity.  There  are  lodged  there 


64  FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 


race-thoughts  of  the  age-long  standing  and  therefore 
of  tremendous  strength.  The  conscious  suggestion 
given  to  the  subconscious  mind  must  be  strong  enough 
and  go  deep  enough  to  nullify  the  effect  of  every 
counter-suggestion  lodged  there  as  the  result  of  pre¬ 
vious  experience,  if  it  is  to  bring  profound  and  abiding 
results. 

In  view  of  the  foregoing,  it  should  be  borne  in  mind, 
then,  that  we  should  take  as  great  care  about  the  ideas 
that  are  fed  to  our  minds  as  we  do  to  the  food  that 
goes  into  our  stomachs;  in  fact  the  latter  precaution 
would  become  less  imperative,  were  we  more  careful 
concerning  the  former.  Are  you  feeding  your  mind 
with  the  negative  and  destructive  thoughts  of  sickness 
and  failure,  or  with  the  positive  and  God-like  thoughts 
of  health  and  power  and  fulness  of  life  generally? 
These  thoughts  bring  us  into  tune  with  the  Divine- 
Consciousness.  Not  only  must  we  watch  over  the 
kind  of  thoughts  which  we  allow  to  enter  the  subcon¬ 
scious,  but  also  we  must  take  care  concerning  the 
manner  of  their  entrance,  whether  they  enter  under 
circumstances  favorable  to  penetration  and  intensive 
realization.  One  should  observe  times  of  Silence, 
with  the  negative  thoughts  of  the  world-consciousness 
shut  out,  with  intense  concentration  on  the  ideas  con¬ 
nected  with  one’s  desires,  with  the  imaging  or  pictur¬ 
ing  faculties  at  full  play,  and  if  possible  at  times  when 
the  emotional  life  is  in  a  state  of  exaltation.  Under 
these  conditions,  the  ideas  given  to  the  subconscious 
take  hold  profoundly.  Of  course,  the  night  time,  just 
before  sleep,  is  a  very  favorable  time,  for  the  subcon- 


OVERCOMING  SICKNESS  65 

scious  is  in  full  control  over  night  and  will  work  out 
the  ideas  thus  impressed  with  great  effectiveness. 

These  two  principles  suggest  to  us  the  vast  possi¬ 
bilities  of  the  field  of  psychotherapy,  or  mind-cure.  If 
it  be  true  that  the  subconscious  mind  controls  the  vital 
processes  and  that  it  is  in  turn  amenable  to  conscious 
suggestion,  we  are  forced  to  the  inevitable  conclusion 
that  the  life  processes  are  absolutely  within  our  men¬ 
tal  control.  We  are  hereby  afforded  an  unquestionable 
basis  for  the  reality  of  mental  healing.  Moreover,  it  is 
not  to  be  admitted,  even  from  this  standpoint  of  mere 
mental  science,  that  God  is  eliminated  from  the  ques¬ 
tion.  True,  to  this  point  there  is  nothing  distinctly  and 
definitely  spiritual  about  it,  nevertheless  it  is  intimately 
related  to  the  principles  of  the  spiritual  life.  From 
our  larger  point  of  view,  God  is  universally  immanent 
in  His  world.  We  do  not  eliminate  God  by  saying  that 
one  of  His  ways  of  working  is  to  operate  through  the 
channels  of  psychological  law.  Howbeit,  we  do  not 
reach  the  sphere  of  the  highest  possibilities  until  we 
pass  beyond  mere  mental  healing  into  the  domain  of 
spiritual  healing.  Even  from  the  standpoint  of  mental 
suggestion,  the  suggestion  with  the  most  telling  force 
is  the  suggestion  charged  with  the  power  of  some  deep 
spiritual  truth.  In  relieving  an  ailment,  the  sugges¬ 
tion  that  it  is  passing  away  may  be  very  effective,  but 
in  the  suggestion  that  there  is  an  Omnipotent  Power 
in  all  and  through  all,  working  for  fullness  of  life 
and  given  full  sway  by  our  faith,  you  have  a  far  more 
potent  suggestion.  Fear  may  be  lessened  by  suggest¬ 
ing  the  presence  of  favorable  circumstances,  or  by 


66  FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 


bringing  to  light  its  hidden  and  unreasonable  basis  in 
the  subconscious,  but  fortify  your  victim  of  fear  with 
the  suggestion  that  he  dwells  in  a  universe  where  all 
things  work  together  for  good  in  spite  of  every  ex¬ 
ternal  evidence  to  the  contrary,  and  you  have  given 
him  a  suggestion  that  cannot  be  easily  counteracted, 
provided  you  have  prepared  favorable  conditions  for 
its  free  and  full  acceptance.  Moreover,  suggestions 
involving  spiritual  truths  are  charged  with  the  element 
of  emotion,  which  increases  their  effectiveness  a  hun¬ 
dred-fold.  Yet  we  shall  see  later  that  spiritual  healing 
involves  even  more  than  this. 

In  approaching  the  subject  from  the  more  distinctly 
religious  standpoint,  we  are  led  to  discern  the  healing 
efficacy  of  faith.  Man  is  so  constituted  that  to  exer¬ 
cise  faith,  even  its  cruder  expressions,  is  to  open  at 
least  to  some  extent  the  channels  of  healing.  There 
are  records  of  healings  experienced  at  the  ancient 
pagan  shrines.  We  are  informed  of  the  many  authen¬ 
ticated  cures  wrought  at  Lourdes,  where  the  wor¬ 
shippers  attribute  something  like  a  magical  or  super¬ 
natural  power  to  the  relics  of  the  saints.  Occasion¬ 
ally  healings  in  various  branches  of  the  Church  are 
recorded  and  usually  attributed  to  some  supernatural 
power,  often  to  an  arbitrary  intervention  on  the  part 
of  a  God  who  seems  to  be  made  in  man’s  image  and 
therefore  capable  of  being  moved  to  unusual  pity  by 
some  poor  suppliant’s  insistent  pleading.  All  these 
expressions  of  faith  are  more  or  less  crude  and  repose 
in  various  theories,  but  all  are  nevertheless  more  or 
less  efficacious. 


OVERCOMING  SICKNESS 


67 


The  inevitable  conclusion  concerning  the  underlying 
principle  of  healing  is  that  it  is  the  principle  of  faith. 
The  absolutely  indispensible  element  in  the  process 
of  healing  is  faith  in  a  Higher  Power.  All  faith  is  in 
the  last  analysis  faith  in  God,  however  crude  or  un¬ 
conscious,  and  is  therefore  to  some  extent  efficacious, 
for  it  involves  at  least  a  partial  harmonizing  with  the 
law  of  our  being  which  only  a  living  faith  in  God  can 
effect. 

This  fact  accounts  for  healing  under  circumstances 
so  varied.  It  is  to  be  noted,  however,  that  the  deeper 
the  faith  penetrates  to  a  true  understanding  of  the 
inner  realities  of  the  Divine  Life  and  a  living  com¬ 
munion  with  it,  the  greater  the  efficacy  of  the  faith. 
Only  this  true  knowledge  of  God  and  of  the  law  of 
our  being  in  Him  can  lead  to  sure,  permanent  and 
universal  healing. 

In  order  to  arrive  at  a  true  understanding  of  the 
principles  of  healing,  certain  errors  in  theological  in¬ 
terpretation  must  be  eliminated  from  the  mind.  Four 
mistaken  notions  occur  to  us,  and  these  we  shall  con¬ 
sider  in  turn.  In  the  first  place,  the  erroneous  idea 
that  God  wills  sickness  for  anyone  must  be  discarded. 
There  are  many  grounds  for  denying  it.  First,  in 
the  visible  plane  of  nature,  we  find  evidence  contra¬ 
dicting  such  a  theory.  Everywhere  in  nature,  in  plant 
and  animal  life,  we  see  God’s  will  at  work,  the  divine 
urge,  if  you  will,  in  tendencies  seeking  to  overcome 
abnormal  and  imperfect  conditions.  In  case  of  abra¬ 
sion  or  injury,  immediately  the  healing  processes  be- 


68  FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 

gin,  in  the  very  nature  of  things,  divinely  ordained  as 
they  are. 

Again,  Jesus  revealed  in  his  ways,  the  character 
and  will  of  God.  Wherever  he  found  opportunity,  he 
healed  the  sick.  There  is  no  record  of  his  ever  having 
left  a  needy  one  unhealed  except  where  his  faith  was 
wanting.  This  indicates  the  divine  will  in  every 
instance.  Then,  if  God  be  God,  He  is  a  God  of  Love- 
It  would  be  absolutely  inconsistent  for  a  God  of  Love 
and  Perfection  to  will  imperfection. .  He  must  ever 
seek  to  manifest  His  own  perfection  in  us.  His  only 
will  for  us  must  be  perfect  spiritual,  mental  and 
physical  health,  and  all  these  manifestations  of  health 
are  phases  of  the  one  principle  of  life  and  health  in 
God.  He  wills  so,  that  we  may  be  efficient  mediums 
for  His  Self-expression  in  the  great  purpose  of  die 
ages.  There  can  be  no  virtue  in  pain  and  suffering 
except  in  so  far  as  it  leads  us  back  into  harmony  with 
the  One  Source  and  Principle  of  all  Life  and  all 
Health.  It  is  always  God’s  will  that  we  should  be 
healed  when  we  are  ready  to  be  healed,  and  we  are 
ready  to  be  healed  when  we  can  rise  to  the  healing 
prayer  of  faith.  Then  the  pain  which  belongs  to  a 
passing  phase  of  our  evolution,  has  served  its  purpose. 
We  recognize  it  to  be  a  manifestation  of  the  working 
of  the  beneficent  and  perfect  law  of  love,  automatically 
inverted  in  its  action  because  of  our  blind  human 
resistance  to  it.  ii Whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that 
shall  he  also  reap.”  But  the  healing  power,  by  .an 
unfailing  law,  is  in  direct  proportion  to  our  faith- 
It  is  more  sure  than  gravity  in  its  operation.  Let  us 


OVERCOMING  SICKNESS 


69 


give  no  place  to  such  an  unbelieving  phrase  as  “if  it 
be  Thy  will,”  be  it  born  of  never  so  good  intentions, 
for  that  attached  to  a  healing  prayer,  is  the  reservation 
that  takes  the  heart  out  of  the  prayer. 

Another  erroneous  theory  is  that  the  so-called 
healing  miracles  belong  to  a  temporary  period  of 
special  intervention  in  the  orderly  course  of  the  uni¬ 
verse,  for  a  special  purpose.  This  view  has  become 
utterly  untenable,  with  thinking  minds.  The  present- 
day  revelation  of  God  as  a  faithful  Creator,  in  whom 
is  no  variableness,  neither  shadow  of  turning,  even  in 
the  realm  of  natural  law,  where  effect  follows  cause  in 
an  absolutely  dependable  way,  forbids  us  to  admit  a 
miracle  in  the  generally  accepted  sense  of  the  term, — 
as  a  break  in  the  chain  of  cause  and  effect,  or  as  a 
violation  of  natural  law.  All  life  is  miraculous  in  the 
sense  of  being  mystic  and  wonderful,  but  nothing  is 
miraculous  in  the  sense  of  being  out  of  harmony  with 
eternal  law.  What  seems  miraculous,  in  this  sense, 
involves  the  play  of  some  higher  law,  of  which  we  are 
as  yet  ignorant. 

Any  section  of  the  Church  in  any  generation  offer¬ 
ing  as  the  explanation  of  the  absence  of  healing  works 
the  fiction  that  the  power  of  healing  was  withdrawn 
after  it  accomplished  its  purpose  of  overcoming 
opposition  to  the  gospel  in  the  early  days,  is  witnessing 
to  its  own  spiritual  poverty  and  blindness.  Divine 
laws,  whether  natural  or  spiritual,  (in  the  last  analysis 
they  are  one, )  that  obtained  then  obtain  now,  for  they 
are,  as  Christ,  the  same  yesterday,  today  and  forever. 
We  pray,  therefore,  for  faith  in  the  present,  eternal 


;o  FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 

law  of  the  healing  Christ,  that  there  may  now  be 
signs  following  as  in  the  days  of  old,  and  greater 
according  to  the  sure  promise.  Surely  much  of  our 
religion  of  today  is  a  mutilated,  fragmentary  thing, 
a  broken  light.  The  Master  intended  that  his  religion 
should  minister  to  the  whole  man,  body,  mind  and 
spirit.  By  no  means  are  the  healing  miracles  confined 
to  a  past  period.  The  age  of  greatest  faith  and  of 
greatest  miracles  lies  not  in  the  past  but  rather  in  the 

future. 

The  third  erroneous  attitude  toward  healing,  closely 
connected  with  the  previous  consideration,  is  that  it 
is  somewhat  too  daring,  if  not  blasphemous,  to  claim 
to  employ  the  power  exercised  by  the  Master.  This 
thoughtless  point  of  view  is  due  largely  to  a  defective 
understanding  concerning  the  relation  of  Jesus 
divinity  to  his  humanity,  and  the  true  mode  of  his 
earthly  life,  to  say  nothing  of  the  very  burden  of  His 
message.  This  whole  question  is  in  great  need  of 
interpretation  in  terms  of  modern  thought  and 
involves  tremendous  practical  consequences.  In  some 
respects  we  have  drifted  from  the  real  orthodoxy  of 
the  early  Church.  The  notion  that  Jesus  performed 
His  miracles  by  virtue  of  some  supernatural  power 
peculiar  to  a  sphere  of  being  remote  from  human  life 
and  that  He  arbitrarily  committed  this  supernatural 
power  to  a  chosen  few,  is  simply  impossible  from 
every  point  of  view  except  that  of  ignorance  of  the 
facts.  There  is  manifestly  no  warrant  for  this  view 
in  the  Scriptures.  It  is  hopelessly  inconsistent  with 
modern  knowledge  and  with  experience.  If  we  say 


OVERCOMING  SICKNESS 


7 1 


that  Jesus  performed  His  miracles  by  virtue  of  His 
perfect  humanity,  we  are  nearer  to  the  truth.  Yet  it 
was  a  humanity  infused  with  divinity.  The  greatest 
trouble  lies  in  the  defective  sense  of  the  real  univer¬ 
sality  of  the  Divine  Christ,  of  the  Christ  in  us  the 
hope  of  glory.  If  we  really  believe  that  He  is  in  us, 
very  life  of  our  life,  seeking  to  manifest  in  us  and 
operate  through  us,  the  whole  difficulty  vanishes. 

It  would  be  well,  in  connection  with  the  present 
consideration,  to  note  a  saying  of  the  Master  which 
seems  even  to  imply  His  own  inability  to  perform  the 
works,  in  His  merely  human  capacity.  “I  can  of 
myself  do  nothing/’  “The  Father  that  dwelleth  in  me, 
He  doeth  the  works.”  This  serves  to  bring  His 
human  life  nearer  to  our  own.  Again,  there  is  no 
indication  that  Jesus  ever  claimed  powers  for  Himself 
that  He  did  not  claim  for  mankind.  “Greater  works 
shall  he  do,”  He  declared.  Jesus,  as  the  great  Master 
of  Life,  knew  what  is  in  man.  He  knew  and  applied 
higher  laws,  of  which  we  are  comparatively  ignorant. 
The  promise  is  to  everyone  who  follows  unswervingly 
in  His  steps,  in  accordance  with  the  higher  laws  of 
our  being.  Let  us  not  only  trace  His  steps  through 
Galilee  of  old,  but  also  go  apart  often  into  the  Silence 
and  in  prayer  and  meditation  receive  the  guidance  of 
His  Spirit.  I  venture  to  say  that  we  are  now  witness¬ 
ing  the  dawn  of  a  new  era  of  discovery  in  the  higher 
region  of  the  life  of  man,  which  holds  in  store  for  us 
undreamed  of  revelations,  and  untold  riches  of 
knowledge  and  power.  In  obedience  to  His  command, 
let  us  not  be  content  simply  to  say,  “Lord,  Lord,”  in 


FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 

veneration  of  His  ancient  works,  but  let  us  rather 
enter  into  the  secret  of  His  power,  that  His  ancient 
dream  of  present  power  may  find  its  larger  fulfilment. 

A  fourth  common  error  hindering  spiritual  healing 
is  the  idea  that  healing  is  performed  by  the  man  him¬ 
self,  through  some  peculiar  power  of  his  own,  howbeit 
divinely  bestowed.  Strictly  speaking  no  man  is  a 
healer.  There  is  but  one  healer,  God.  It  should  be 
understood  that  man  is  the  agency  through  which  the 
power  of  God  operates.  As  Emerson  says,  ‘  Man  is 
the  inlet,  and  may  become  the  outlet  of  all  there  is  in 
God.”  One  man  may  for  some  reason  have  native  or 
developed  tendencies  rendering  him  a  more  efficient 
medium,  but  the  power  lies  more  or  less  dormant  in 
every  man,  waiting  for  the  conditions  to  be  complied 
with.  The  power  is  the  power  of  God  at  the  center 
of  every  man’s  being,  where  Christ  dwells.  Man  has 
ever  sought  some  fountain  of  external  healing  without. 
Let  it  be  known  that  that  fountain  is  to  be  found 
within,  a  fountain  of  living  water,  as  it  were,  spring¬ 
ing  up  unto  everlasting  life,  from  the  center  through 
every  plane  of  our  being  to  its  utmost  circumference. 
A  lesser  Christ  than  this  we  know  not.  An  important 
step  in  the  understanding  of  the  principles  of  spiritual 
healing,  then,  is  that  the  power^  is  not  “somewhere  in 
heaven,”  to  be  called  down  here  by  our  external  peti¬ 
tion,  but  that  it  is  within  at  the  inmost  center  of  our 
being,  where  God  dwells  m  all  His  fulness.  Though 
within,  it  is  not  a  finite  power,  subject  to  the  limita¬ 
tions  of  our  person;  it  is  at  once  within  and  beyond, 
enabling  us  to  draw  on  the  limitless  and  inexhaustible 


OVERCOMING  SICKNESS 


73 


reservoir  of  the  Infinite  and  Eternal  Being.  By  yield¬ 
ing  to  conscious  contact  with  it,  we  can  open  the  flood¬ 
gates,  that  the  surging  life-giving  tides  of  the  healing 
Spirit  may  course  through  every  fiber  of  our  being, 
and,  perchance,  flow  through  into  other  needy  liv6s. 

We  have  seen  that  faith  is  a  prerequisite  for  healing. 
We  have  considered  the  elementary  faith  exhibiting 
itself  as  trust  in  some  external  person  or  power.  In 
such  a  stage,  faith  is  very  crude  and  comparatively 
inefficient.  Now,  having  eliminated  our  erroneous 
theological  opinions,  we  pass  on  to  faith  in  its  highest 
reaches.  Paul  defines  it  as  “The  evidence  of  things 
not  seen.”  It  may  be  defined  in  terms  of  modern 
psychological  thought  as  “Spiritual  consciousness.” 
It  is  the  clear  inner  vision,  attained  through  the 
development  of  the  spiritual  or  intuitional  senses,  on 
the  invisible  plane  of  Reality,  where  we  touch  most 
intimately  God,  Christ,  Spirit,  Life.  We  are  con¬ 
cerned,  then,  with  the  faith  that  unfolds  as  an  intense 
and  dynamic  spiritual  consciousness,  involving  the 
development  of  vision  in  the  unseen  realm  of  Reality 
and  Perfection,  heaven,  the  sphere  of  causation 
whence  all  things  proceed,  to  manifest  themselves  on 
the  visible  plane  of  earthly  existence, — rather  than 
the  faith  that  is  merely  a  blind  trust  in  some  theolog¬ 
ical  proposition  or  in  some  capricious,  celestial 
Potentate.  It  is  this  direct  vision  that  brings  the 
immediate  experience  of  the  Healing  Presence  at  the 
center  of  that  world  of  Reality  and  Perfection  and  yet 
in  our  midst,  “Whose  touch  hath  still  its  ancient 
power.”  To  come  thus  into  this  Healing  Presence 


74  FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 

is  to  enter  into  the  full  consciousness  of  God  as  the 
Eternal  Love  that  enfolds  us  and  of  Christ  as  His 
Life  that  dwells  within.  The  highest  form  of  faith, 
then,  is  to  enter  into  something  like  Jesus’  unclouded 
consciousness  of  God  as  the  Universal  Father-Spirit, 
in  whom  we  ever  live  and  move  and  have  our 
being. 

The  further  we  advance,  the  more  convinced  do 
we  become  of  the  fact  that  the  secret  of  the  solution 
of  life’s  problems  is  hidden  in  that  profound,  mystic 
saying  of  the  Master  ;  “I  and  my  Father  are  one.” 
We  are  too  apt  to  forget  that  our  lives,  too,  are  hid 
with  Christ  in  God.  This  is  the  expression  of  the 
consciousness  which  is  able  not  only  to  exercise  domin¬ 
ion  over  every  circumstance  of  life,  but  to  bring 
healing.  It  is  essentially  the  healing  consciousness; 
the  consciousness  of  realized  oneness  with  the  Eternal 
Principle  that  is  the  Source  of  all  life  and  health. 
Not  only  must  we  be  gripped  by  the  truth  of  the  reality 
of  the  Divine  Healing  Presence,  but  also  of  our  own 
essentially  spiritual  being;  that  man  is  an  offspring  of 
God,  a  veritable  son  of  God,  made  in  the  divine  image, 
full  of  undreamed-of  powers  and  capable  of  the 
highest  perfection.  The  great  truth  to  be  impressed 
upon  the  mind  is  that  the  inner  man,  the  spiritual  man, 
the  real  man  himself  as  God  made  him,  is  whole, 
sound,  well,  perfect,  not  able  to  be  touched  with  evil 
of  any  kind,  a  life  truly  hid  with  Christ  in  God.  This 
is  to  dwell  in  the  secret  place  of  the  Most  High.  The 
deepest  realization  of  this  truth  about  man’s  being 
is  an  important  element  in  the  faith  that  finds  its 


OVERCOMING  SICKNESS 


75 


expression  in  the  healing  consciousness.  Then,  it  is 
an  unfailing  law  of  the  mind  and  spirit,  attested  by 
many  who  have  given  these  principles  a  trial,  that  the 
inner  realization  of  the  truth  of  this  absolute  perfect 
inner  wholeness  will  register  itself  in  the  flesh,  that 
it  will  communicate  itself  to  the  outer,  visible,  physical 
life  of  the  man.  The  inner  life  will  externalize  itself 
in  the  outer  conditions,  for  as  we  have  shown  the 
mind  governs  the  flesh,  even  as  the  Spirit  governs 
the  mind. 

Again,  we  must  be  conscious  of  the  everlasting 
reign  of  spiritual  law,  including  the  law  of  faith,  as 
sure  in  its  operation  as  the  law  of  gravity  on  the 
material  plane,  and  wrought  into  the  very  nature  of 
things  as  God  has  created  them.  Everything  in  the 
Scriptures  and  in  the  heart  of  man  points  to  the 
bewildering  fact  that  the  only  limit  to  our  power  is 
imposed  by  the  limitation  of  our  faith;  it  lies  in  our 
present  imperfect  state  of  consciousness.  Jesus 
said : — “ According  to  thy  faith,  be  it  unto  you.”  He 
who  is  wise  let  him  ponder  these  things.  Again,  “if 
ye  have  faith  as  a  grain  of  mustard  seed,  ye  shall 
say  unto  this  mountain,  ‘Remove  hence  to  yonder 
place;’  and  it  shall  remove;  and  nothing  shall  be 
impossible  unto  you.”  Again,  “Have  faith  in  God.” 
This  has  been  translated,  “Have  the  faith  of  God.” 
Know  no  doubt  as  God  knows  none.  Recognize  no 
opposing  power,  as  God  recognizes  none.  Think 
God’s  thoughts  after  Him,  as  becomes  a  child  of  God, 
and  you  will  possess  the  power  of  God.  Wait,  then, 
on  the  perfect  and  unfailing  law,  in  absolute  confi- 


76  FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 


dence  and  assurance,  knowing  that  with  God  all 
things  are  possible. 

There  now  arises  the  question  concerning  how  to 
attain  to  the  type  of  faith  that  is  the  healing  con¬ 
sciousness,  that  is  the  consciousness  supplying  a  free 
channel  for  God’s  healing.  It  will  be  recalled  that 
after  the  descent  from  the  Transfiguration  Mount, 
made  glorious  by  a  wondrous  prayer-experience  which 
occurred  there,  and  subsequent  to  the  healing  of  the 
demoniac  boy,  and  the  disciples’  disappointment 
because  of  their  own  failure,  Jesus  declared  that  such 
works  issue  only  as  the  result  of  prayer  and  fasting. 
Let  us  consider  these  two  important  factors.  First, 
let  us  consider  prayer  as  one  of  the  prerequisites  indi¬ 
cated  by  the  Master.  He  had  already  demonstrated 
the  vital  importance  of  faith.  We  must  conclude  that 
he  is  here  pointing  to  prayer  as  the  way  to  the  required 
faith.  While  prayer  may  be  faith  in  action,  the  means 
to  transmitting  the  energy  of  God  operating  through 
our  faith,  it  is  also  faith  in  the  making.  It  contacts  the 
divine  reservoir  of  power  and  stores  it  up  in  a  living 
consciousness  of  divine  power,  to  be  called  forth  to 
meet  some  future  need.  Paul  says: — “I  will  pray 
with  faith,  and  I  will  pray  with  the  understanding 
also.”  Those  attaining  to  the  higher  faith,  pray  not 
in  blind  and  faltering  trust,  but  pray  the  prayer  of 
understanding,  with  the  realization  that  prayer  is  not 
mere  begging  an  unwilling  God  to  change  his  purpoii  e, 
nor  is  it  calling  out  anxiously  to  a  far  away,  outside 
heaven  for  the  arbitrary  granting  of  a  petition.  It  is 
an  opening  of  one’s  being,  that  the  Universal  Spirit 


OVERCOMING  SICKNESS 


77 


may  operate  by  an  unfailing  law  through  its  special¬ 
ized  center  of  energy,  man,  as  it  ever  strives  to  do. 
With  faith,  and  joy  and  thanksgiving  in  the  heart, 
it  is  known  that  the  prayer  is  already  answered  in 
the  realm  of  the  real,  in  the  realm  of  causation,  and 
that  according  to  the  faith,  it  is  about  to  find  expres¬ 
sion  on  the  plane  of  visible  manifestation.  This 
principle  is  revealed  in  the  saying: — “What  things 
soever  when  ye  pray,  believe  that  ye  receive  them,  and 
ye  shall  have  them.”  Again,  it  was  said  by  the 
Master: — “Father,  I  thank  Thee  that  Thou  hast  heard 
me.”  This  is  eternal  law. 

The  healing  prayer  of  faith,  then,  first  of  all, 
breathes  the  consciousness  of  the  universally  imman¬ 
ent  Father-Christ-Spirit.  It  is  actual,  immediate,  con¬ 
scious  communion  with  Him  in  Whom  we  live  and 
move  and  have  our  being,  the  Most  High  God  that 
inhabiteth  Eternity,  and  yet  who  dwells  within, 
“Closer  than  breathing,  Nearer  than  hands  and  feet.” 
It  knows  and  feels  God  as  the  Healing  Presence. 
There  is  a  summoning  of  mighty  forces  from  the 
inmost.  There  is  a  conscious  opening  of  the  man  to 
the  inflow  of  the  divine  life  and  power  from  within 
and  beyond,  in  vibrations  of  Love  and  Power  emanat¬ 
ing  from  the  great  Heart  of  the  Eternal  beating  at  the 
center  of  the  Universe,  and  yet  centered  within,  in  the 
inner  depths  of  his  own  being.  This  consciousness 
is  unclouded  by  any  shadow  of  a  doubt;  it  sees,  it 
feels,  it  knows  the  mighty  power  of  God  that  worketh 
within.  The  ways  are  open  within,  and  we  find  a  well 
of  water,  springing  up  into  everlasting  life.  Eternal 


78  FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 

Love’s  Power  overshadows  us,  and  its  overwhelming 
and  cleansing  tides  surge  through  us,  and  behold  we 
are  whole  again. 

We  now  pass  on  to  the  second  requirement.  In  his 
reference  to  fasting,  Jesus  indicates  discipline  and 
restraint  in  a  broad  sense,  we  take  it.  This  does  not 
mean  ascetism,  nor  does  it  necessarily  refer  to  a  diet 
save  where  peculiar  circumstances  may  require  such 
an  application.  Certainly  it  advocates  no  arbitrary 
fast  to  be  regarded  as  a  virtue  in  itself.  At  this  point 
we  are  brought  to  the  consideration  of  certain  things 
which  must  be  eliminated  from  our  lives  if  we  would 
attain  to  the  fulness  of  the  healing  consciousness  and 
power.  This  is  another  reason  why  mere  mental 
healing  is  inadequate.  A  mental  suggestion  may 
relieve  a  pain  for  the  time  being,  but  no  real  and  per¬ 
manent  cure  can  be  wrought  until  the  whole  man  is 
transfigured  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  until  there  is  a 
reorientation  of  the  whole  life,  and  the  man  begins  to 
function  from  the  Christ-center  of  his  being,  so  that 
it  may  no  longer  be  said  that  he  lives  but  that  Christ 
liveth  in  him.  If  the  life  of  Christ  enters  into  full 
possession  through  the  whole  range  of  his  being,  be¬ 
hold  he  is  a  new  man  altogether.  This  involves  spirit¬ 
ual  healing,  which  is  the  only  real,  radical  healing,  and 
which  is  produced  through  the  transfiguring  power  of 
prayer  and  faith,  bringing  us  into  dynamic  contact 
and  communion  with  the  Divine  and  Perfect  Life  of 
The  Eternal  One.  When  a  man  is  wholly  possessed 
of  the  Christ,  the  touch  of  his  spirit,  as  a  medium  of 
God  may  hold  all  the  potency  of  the  Divine  and  impart 


OVERCOMING  SICKNESS 


79 


perfect  healing  through  all  the  being  of  another.  This 
is,  par  excellence,  spiritual  healing.  Even  if  in  this 
instance,  the  element  of  magnetism  is  involved,  its 
source  is  from  Mind  and  Spirit.  But,  as  in  the  last 
analysis,  it  is  God  who  heals,  each  one  may  become 
his  own  medium  of  healing,  through  an  understanding 
of  the  truth  about  God  and  about  man,  for  as  the 
Master  said: — “Ye  shall  know  the  Truth  and  the 
Truth  shall  make  you  free.” 

The  fasting  which  we  must  achieve  through  prayer 
in  connection  with  the  work  of  spiritual  healing 
includes  the  putting  away  of  three  outstanding  forms 
of  sin  which  inhibit  the  healing  consciousness,  namely, 
sensuality,  hate,  and  fear.  These  three  must  be  cast 
out.  This  involves  real  fasting,  fasting  from  indul¬ 
gence  in  grave  and  disastrous  spiritual  sin  as  well  as 
in  the  sins  of  the  flesh.  It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that 
discord  in  the  inner  life  of  man  inevitably  issues  in 
inharmonious  action  in  the  bodily  processes.  Complete 
healing  cannot  be  reached  until  all  the  God-qualities 
are  finding  expression  in  our  lives. 

The  Divine  Spirit  cannot  work  efficiently  through 
a  bodily  medium  rendered  inefficient  through  viola¬ 
tions  of  its  nature.  Hence  the  necessity  of  overcom¬ 
ing  sensuality.  We  do  not  refer  to  the  natural 
instincts,  which  are  good,  nor  to  their  legitimate 
expression,  but  to  their  perverted  activity.  It  is 
unnecessary  to  undertake  to  point  out  the  great  extent 
of  physical  ailments  resulting  from  intemperance  in 
every  form,  although  doubtless  many  do  not  pause  to 
realize  the  wide-spread  havoc  it  plays  with  human 


go  FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 

life.  It  is  the  work  of  a  vital  religion  to  free  men 
from  these  bondages.  Moreover,  we  can  do  little  in 
the  work  of  healing  until  we  have  broken  these  bonds 
in  our  own  lives.  Meditation,  revealing  the  divine  in 
us,  and  bringing  us  into  the  exaltation  of  the  Spirit, 
together  with  prayer,  establishing  the  harmony  of  the 
Christ-Life  within  us  and  feeding  us  with  the  satis¬ 
fying  food  of  the  heavenly  Kingdom,  starves  out 
sensuality  or  banishes  it  by  the  expulsive  force  of  an 
all-consuming  fire. 

Next  we  must  confront  our  spiritual  sins,  as  they 
are  called,  sins  more  obviously  connected  with  the 
inner  life.  These  are  the  sins  which  the  Master  con¬ 
demned  much  more  severely  than  the  sins  of  the  flesh. 
While  all  realize  to  some  extent  the  harm  done  by  sins 
of  the  flesh,  few  recognize  the  extent  of  the  physical 
as  well  as  the  spiritual  weakness  due  to  such  spiritual, 
or  rather  very  unspiritual  sins,  as  hate  and  fear. 
These  sins,  with  their  companions,  envy,  jealousy  and 
the  like,  have  not  been  sufficiently  emphasized  by 
many  of  our  religious  teachers  as  breaches  of  the  law 
of  righteousness,  as  violations  of  the  law  of  our  being. 
Indeed  neither  physicians  of  the  body  nor  physicians 
of  the  soul  have  given  due  recognition  to  their 
destructive  effects.  We  are  coming  to  see  that  we  need 
a  more  radical  treatment  of  disease,  both  curative  and 
preventive.  In  the  past,  we  dealt  largely  with  symp¬ 
toms  and  effects  by  external  methods  of  treatment, 
rather  than  by  getting  at  root-causes,  reaching  them 
as  far  as  possible  through  the  deepest  region  of  man’s 
being.  The  clear-visioned  Socrates  said  that  the 


OVERCOMING  SICKNESS  81 

reason  that  so  many  diseases  elude  the  physicians  of 
Greece  is  because  they  do  not  understand  the  soul 
of  man.  There  are  many  evidences  of  a  profound 
dissatisfaction  among  the  members  of  the  medical 
profession.  Already  progressive  pioneers  in  the 
modern  medical  profession  are  largely  substituting 
psychological  treatment,  in  one  form  or  another,  in 
place  of  the  comparatively  superficial  external  methods 
of  treatment.  The  physicians  of  the  soul  are  begin¬ 
ning  to  understand  more  concerning  the  laws  of  the 
mind  and  spirit  of  man,  and  are  preparing  for  closer 
and  more  intelligent  cooperation  with  their  medical 
brothers  in  the  advanced  methods  of  psychotherapy, 
bringing  with  them  the  distinctive  contribution  of  a 
living  spiritual  force.  More  and  more  will  these  two 
branches  of  human  service  come  together.  It  ought 
not  to  be  necessary,  however,  for  the  Church  to  sit 
at  the  feet  of  the  remnant  of  the  Old  School  medical 
men  for  instruction  as  to  how  to  make  application  of 
spiritual  principles  to  the  work  of  healing.  How 
often  has  the  intuitional  vision  of  the  inspired  seer 
discovered  truths  which  have  supplied  a  lead  for 
science,  or  has  at  least  anticipated  science  by  many 
years,  only  to  be  confirmed  by  science  at  a  later  period. 
Let  the  Church  lead  the  way. 

Regarding  the  sin  of  hate,  we  may  say  that  it  is  an 
arch-sin,  for  it  is  a  violation  of  the  law  of  love,  which 
is  the  law  of  God’s  life  and  of  our  own.  To  indulge 
in  it  is  to  set  up  violent  discord  through  our  being. 
Science  is  now  telling  us  that  hate  actually  produces 
poisons  in  the  physical  system.  It  is  clear,  then,  that 


82  FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 

hatred  is  a  destructive  agency  in  the  human  body,  and 
a  prolific  producer  of  disease.  Obviously  it  is  a  serious 
inhibiter  of  healing.  In  fact  no  real  healing  could 
possibly  be  effected,  with  hatred  lurking  in  the  heart. 
The  last  remnant  of  it  must  be  cast  out.  In  our  high 
and  exalted  communion  with  the  Eternal  One  Whose 
very  Name  and  Essence  is  Love,  all  traces  of  hatred 
are  annihilated.  On  the  plane  of  the  Eternal,  we  see 
nothing  in  the  wide  world  to  hate ;  we  behold  only  God, 
God  everywhere,  the  Altogether  Lovely  One,  in  His 
many  manifestations,  to  love  and  to  adore.  He  calls 
forth  the  expression  of  Himself  in  us  as  Love. 

In  regard  to  the  sin  of  fear,  we  venture  to  say  that 
despite  the  fact  that  there  is  ordinarily  no  great  con¬ 
demnation  of  it  in  religious  circles,  it  too  is  one  of  the 
arch-sins.  It  is  the  absence  of  faith.  From  every 
stand-point,  what  sin  could  be  more  enormous?  In 
fact  the  sin  of  fear  is  truly  the  arch-enemy  of  the 
human  race.  How  few  are  there  who  are  not  the 
victims  of  fear  in  some  one  of  its  forms:  fear  of 
sickness,  fear  of  calamity,  fear  of  death  and  what  not. 
We  are  all  constantly  under  the  temptation  to  yield  to 
it.  It  is  fear  itself  that  issues  in  calamity,  sickness 
and  disaster.  It  leaves  a  train  of  miserable  victims  in 
its  wake.  Science  shows  how  this  tyrant,  too,  paralyses 
every  muscle  and  sets  up  destructive  action  in  the  body. 
How  terrible  a  record  against  fear  would  be  found 
if  we  could  trace  its  hidden,  insidious  influence.  Fear 
produces  disease,  fear  inhibits  the  healing  conscious¬ 
ness.  In  fact  without  faith,  which  annihilates  fear, 
we  can  accomplish  nothing.  In  true  prayer  we  can 


OVERCOMING  SICKNESS 


83 


rise  to  perfect  faith  and  love.  This  consciousness  of 
the  Christ  is  essentially  the  healing  consciousness. 
Through  it,  God  can  do  all  things;  can  bring  mighty 
miracles  to  pass. 

In  reviewing  these  considerations,  we  discern  the 
crying  need  of  a  spiritual  rebirth  that  will  lead  men 
to  freedom  from  their  bondages.  In  many  instances 
the  latter  day  religion  seems  to  have  been  powerless 
to  release  struggling  men  and  women  from  the  clutches 
of  these  monsters  of  hate  and  fear,  and  their  attendant 
evils  including  physical  wreckage  and  failure  to 
achieve  their  highest  aspirations.  We  have  pointed 
with  pride  to  our  hospitals  and  charities  as  evidences 
of  our  splendid  Christianity,  but,  splendid  and  neces¬ 
sary  though  they  may  be  under  present  primitive  con¬ 
ditions,  they  are  from  another  point  of  view  shameful 
evidences  of  our  failure  to  proclaim  and  practice  the 
religion  of  the  Healing  Christ,  a  religion  that  must 
inevitably  heal  first  the  disordered  consciousness  of 
man,  and  then,  because  man  is  a  unit  in  his  constitu¬ 
tion,  render  the  body  which  is  moulded  and  controlled 
by  the  consciousness,  an  efficient  instrument  for  ser¬ 
vice.  While  retaining  all  past  methods  which  prove 
helpful  and  as  long  as  they  prove  helpful,  let  us 
employ  more  largely  this  more  radical  treatment  of 
disease,  probing  to  the  root  of  the  trouble,  and  we 
shall  see  that  about  four-fifths  of  our  disease  will  be 
eliminated,  if  not  more.  Gigantic  strides  in  these 
methods  of  treatment  will  be  made  within  the  century, 
and  who  would  dare  to  say  that  the  next  step  will  not 
lead  to  the  elimination  of  disease,  according  to  the 


84  FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 

Bible  prophecies.  Most  of  us  fail  to  realize  that  man, 
in  his  evolution  and  unfoldment  on  the  visible  plan 
of  his  existence,  is  not  a  finished  product.  He  is  in 
his  infancy.  Some  day  we  must  grow  to  a  measure 
of  the  stature  of  the  fulness  of  Christ.  It  is  also  true 
that  all  the  Bible  prophecies  which  in  the  past  have 
been  interpreted  in  such  a  manner  as  to  be  relegated 
to  some  remote  heaven  of  the  future,  are  to  be  realized 
in  our  present  sphere.  But  far  greater  forces  than 
those  now  understood  must  be  called  in  to  achieve  these 
ends.  “Eye  hath  not  seen,  nor  hath  ear  heard,  neither 
hath  it  entered  into  the  heart  of  man,  the  things  that 
God  hath  prepared  for  them  that  love  Him.  .  Let  us 
have  the  courage  to  go  forward,  for,  men  s  minds  are 
widened  with  the  process  of  the  suns.’ 

In  closing  this  subject,  let  us  summarize  our 
thoughts,  centering  them  about  three  mighty  declara¬ 
tions  from  scripture,  embodying  truths  which  we 
might  well  fix  deep  in  our  consciousness. 

The  first  is,  “Have  that  mind  in  you,  which  was 
also  in  Christ  Jesus.”  What  must  have  been  the 
wonderful  consciousness  of  Jesus?  It  was  the 
unclouded  vision  of  Reality.  It  was  an  almighty  God- 
consciousness.  It  knew  no  other  power  than  God.  It 
knew  that  Power  to  be  within.  It  knew  that  power 
to  be  limitless.  He  said  that  we,  too,  by  abiding  in 
Him,  might  possess  it,  and  He  prophecied  concerning 
its  wondrous  results.  Let  us  seek  earnestly  in  prayer 
to  rise  to  this  wonderful  region  of  God-consciousness. 
Thus  are  we  transfigured,  like  Jesus,  in  soul  and  body, 
by  the  renewing  of  our  mind. 


OVERCOMING  SICKNESS 


85 


The  second  is,  “Christ  the  same  yesterday,  today, 
and  forever.’’  This  declaration  points  to  the  funda¬ 
mental  truth  of  our  being :  that  the  Christ  is  identical 
with  the  Central  Self  of  you;  that  the  law  of  your 
real  being,  of  the  Christ  in  you,  is  unchanging  and 
unchangeable;  your  real  being  is  incorruptible  and 
inviolable,  the  same  yesterday,  today,  and  forever,  for 
it  is  established  in  Christ.  Its  law  is  the  law  of  holiness 
and  health.  In  prayer,  you  can  open  the  way  for  God 
to  bring  your  body  into  harmony  with  it. 

The  third  is,  “Christ  in  you  the  hope  of  glory.”  It 
declares  that  the  Christ-Life  in  you  holds  the  promise 
of  your  great  salvation,  spiritual,  mental,  and  physical. 
It  avers  that  God  is  your  strength  and  health,  and  is 
become  your  salvation.  It  declares  that  whatever  the 
outward  manifestations  of  disturbance  may  be  in  your 
life,  the  hope  of  your  salvation  through  the  whole 
range  of  your  being,  lies  in  the  Eternal  Christ  in  you, 
at  the  center  of  your  being,  with  whom  you  may  come 
into  correspondence.  It  declares  that  God  is  seeking 
to  express  Himself,  to  realize  Himself  in  you;  that  the 
divine  purpose  and  goal  for  you  is  perfection,  and 
that  the  unfailing  promise  of  its  fulfilment  lies  in  the 
Christ  in  you,  the  hope  of  glory.  Yield  to  the  Christ 
urge  within  you,  then  stand  aside  and  see  the  salvation 
of  the  Lord. 

The  Master  said : — “Let  not  your  heart  be  troubled, 
neither  let  it  be  afraid.  Ye  believe  in  God,  believe  also 
in  me.”  You  believe,  you  cannot  but  believe  in  God, 
the  Supreme  Being,  the  Source  of  all  good,  of  all 
there  is;  believe,  then,  in  me  also,  as  the  perfect 


86  FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 


expression  of  God;  believe  in  yourself,  or  rather 
believe  in  Me  in  you,  the  real  Self  of  you,  as  the 
perfect  expression  of  the  Perfect  God,  because  in 
your  real  being  you  are  part  and  parcel  of  me.  Your 
faith  shall  make  you  whole  throughout.  Be  perfect 
even  as  your  Father  which  is  in  heaven  is  perfect.  Be 
conscious  of  your  absolute  inner  perfection,  and 
rejoice  in  your  glorious  liberty  as  the  emancipated 
sons  and  daughters  of  the  Most  High.  Rejoice  also 
that  it  is  given  to  you  to  see  the  dawn  of  the  golden  era 
of  spiritual  supremacy  and  dominion,  and  to  have  a 
share  in  the  spiritual  emancipation  and  wondrous 
transfiguration  of  mankind. 

MEDITATIONS  AND  PRAYERS  FOR  HEALING 

“But  unto  you  that  fear  my  name,  shall  the  Sun  of 
Righteousness  arise  with  healing  in  his  wings.” 

“The  power  of  the  Lord  was  present  to  heal  them.” 
(The  power  of  the  Lord  is  present  to  heal  us  and 
ours.)  “I  am  the  Lord  that  healeth  thee.” 

“According  to  thy  faith,  be  it  unto  thee.” 

“The  prayer  of  faith  shall  save  the  sick  and  the 
Lord  shall  raise  him  up.” 

“This  kind  can  come  forth  by  nothing  but  by  prayer 
and  fasting.” 

“Verily,  verily  I  say  unto  you,  he  that  believeth  on 
me,  the  works  that  I  do  shall  he  do  also ;  and  greater 
works  than  these  shall  he  do.” 

“If  thou  canst  believe,  all  things  are  possible  to  him 
that  believeth.” 

“With  God,  all  things  are  possible.” 

Psalm  23,  91,  103,  121. 


OVERCOMING  SICKNESS 


8? 


Before  Prayer—* 

Be  still  and  know  that  I  am  God  the  mighty  One  in 
the  midst  of  thee. 

Dear  God,  in  whom  we  live  and  move  and  have  our 
being,  we  open  our  hearts  that  Thy  Divine  Spirit  may 
flow  into  us  and  through  us  into  the  lives  of  others,  and 
that  Thy  divine  power  that  worketh  in  us  may  make 
us  sound  and  whole  again  as  in  thy  image,  through 
Christ  whose  touch  has  still  its  ancient  power,  the 
same  yesterday,  today  and  forever. 

O  Thou  mighty  Divine  Healer  in  our  midst,  whose 
touch  hath  still  its  ancient  power,  manifest  in  the 
power  that  worketh  in  and  through  us,  we  thank  Thee 
that  Thou  hast  made  us  in  Thy  image  for  dominion 
and  perfection,  and  that  through  our  strong  faith  in 
Thy  healing  Presence,  Thou  dost  stretch  forth  Thy 
hand  to  heal,  by  the  power  of  Thy  Holy  Child  Jesus. 

O  Eternal  Fountain  of  all  life  and  health,  who 
dwells  within  me,  I  thank  Thee  that  Thou  hast  made 
me  in  Thy  perfect  image  and  that  Thou  art  ever  seek¬ 
ing  to  manifest  Thy  life  in  me  as  perfect  health,  that 
Thou  mayest  fulfill  Thy  purpose  of  love  in  me.  I  open 
myself  to  Thy  healing  power. 

‘‘Fear  not,  stand  still  and  see  the  salvation  of  the 
Lord  which  He  will  show  you  this  day.”  “Trust  ye  in 
the  Lord  Jehovah,  for  in  the  Lord  Jehovah  is  ever¬ 
lasting  strength.” 

O  Infinite  Spirit  of  the  Christ  within  us,  we  seek 
Thy  healing  power. 

HEALING  MEDITATIONS  FOR  THE  NEEDY 

ONE 

In  God,  the  Source  of  all  life  and  power,  you  live 
and  move  and  have  your  being. 


88  FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 


You  and  your  Father  are  one,  for  your  life  is  hid 
with  Christ  in  God. 

God  shall  supply  all  your  need  according  to  his 
riches  in  glory. 

God  is  your  strength.  God’s  healing  touch  is  upon 
you.  God’s  healing  work  is  going  on  within  you.  God 
is  seeking  to  manifest  His  wholeness  in  the  image  of 
His  child.  We  see  with  the  eyes  of  the  Spirit  the  com¬ 
pletion  of  His  perfect  work,  sound,  whole,  radiantly 
transfigured.  In  the  name  of  Christ,  be  thou  healed. 
God  is  healing  you,  God  pours  His  very  life  through 
soul  and  body.  In  the  name  of  Christ  it  is  decreed 
unto  you.  “Arise,  shine,  for  thy  light  is  come  and  the 
glory  of  the  Lord  is  risen  upon  thee.” 

“Praise  the  Lord,  O  my  soul,  and  forget  not  all  His 
benefits ;  Who  forgiveth  all  thy  sin  and  healeth  all  thy 
infirmities.” 

“Praise  God  from  Whom  all  blessings  flow.” 

MEDITATIONS  IN  TRUTH 

Lift  your  mind  above  the  world  of  sense,  and  center 
it,  calm  and  serene,  on  the  healing  Presence  of  the 
God  of  Love  at  the  heart  of  the  Kingdom  of  Reality 
and  Perfection  within. 


Let  the  way  to  the  great  deep  be  opened  within. 

Peace,  be  still  and  know  that  I  am  God  the  holy  and 
mighty  One  in  the  midst  of  thee. 

In  God,  the  Source  of  all  life  and  power,  I  live  and 
move  and  have  my  being.  At  the  inmost  center  of  my 
being,  Life  and  Health  are  forever  mine,  for  I  am  one 
with  the  Universal  Divine  Life  and  Energy. 

My  life  is  hid  with  Christ  in  God.  The  Infinite  God 
is  my  strength. 


OVERCOMING  SICKNESS 


89 


The  Master  said: — ‘‘According  to  thy  faith,  be  it 
unto  you.”  My  faith  in  the  healing  Presence,  that 
hath  still  its  ancient  power,  is  strong. 

Peace,  Harmony  and  Health  shall  follow  me  all  the 
days  of  my  life  and  I  will  dwell  in  the  consciousness 
of  God’s  healing  and  protecting  Presence  forever. 
“All  things  work  together  for  good  to  them  that  love 
God.” 

I  cast  my  burden  on  the  Lord,  resting  in  sure  con¬ 
fidence  on  the  perfect  law,  whereby  the  Love  of  God 
heals  and  shields  and  protects  me  and  mine,  the  Wis¬ 
dom  of  God  directs  us,  the  Power  of  God  sustains  us, 
the  Peace  of  God  surrounds  and  enfolds  us. 

OLD  SELECTED  PRAYERS 

Almighty  God,  who  art  the  only  source  of  health 
and  healing,  the  spirit  of  calm  and  the  center  of  the 
universe ;  grant  to  us,  Thy  children,  such  a  conscious¬ 
ness  of  Thy  indwelling  presence,  as  may  give  us  utter 
confidence  in  Thee.  In  all  pain,  weariness  and  anxiety 
may  we  throw  ourselves  on  Thy  besetting  care,  that 
knowing  ourselves  fenced  about  by  Thy  loving  omni¬ 
potence,  we  may  permit  Thee  to  give  us  health  and 
strength  and  peace,  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. 
Amen. 

O  God  grant  that  according  to  Thy  riches  in  Glory 
we  may  be  strengthened  with  might  by  Thy  Spirit  in 
the  inner  man ;  that  Christ  may  dwell  in  our  hearts  by 
faith ;  that  we  being  rooted  and  grounded  in  love,  may 
comprehend,  with  all  saints,  what  is  the  length  and 
breadth  and  height,  and  to  know  the  love  of  Christ 
that  passeth  knowledge,  that  we  may  be  filled  with  all 
the  fulness  of  God,  through  the  same  Christ  our  Lord. 
Amen. 


9o  FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORM) 

O  God  who  hast  prepared  for  us  such  good  things 
as  pass  man’s  understanding,  pour  into  our  hearts 
such  love  toward  Thee,  that  we,  loving  Thee  above  all 
things,  may  obtain  Thy  promises  which  exceed  all 
that  we  can  desire,  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. 
Amen. 


O  Christ  of  God  that  dwells  within, 

Thou  dost  freedom  bring  from  every  sin, 

I  bathe  myself  in  healing  rays, 

As  I  meet  Thee  on  the  inner  ways. 

“Eye  hath  not  seen,  nor  ear  heard,  neither  have  en¬ 
tered  into  the  heart  of  man,  the  things  which  God 
hath  prepared  for  them  that  love  Him.” 


CHAPTER  VII 


Overcoming  Death 

It  is  said  in  the  scriptures  that  the  last  enemy  to  be 
overcome  is  death.  Truly  death  has  ever  been  the 
outstanding  discouragement  with  which  human  faith 
and  endeavor  has  had  to  cope.  It  is  the  cause  of  one 
of  the  worst  and  most  morbid  forms  of  fear.  From 
the  very  limited  viewpoint  of  the  world-thought,  it  is 
the  most  horrible  and  formidable  evil,  the  inevitable 
blight  that  fastens  itself  upon  all  life,  even  at  its  best, 
and  holds  it  in  its  withering  grasp.  Its  dread  shadow 
stalks  at  high  festivals  and  its  sinister  presence  seems 
to  haunt  men  at  high  noon  of  life,  threatening  to 
change  at  any  moment  their  bright  light  to  darkness. 
Nevertheless,  all  great  revelations  have  held  out  the 
promise  that  d,path  at  last  must  yield  to  Life.  The 
great  and  momentous  undertaking  of  overcoming 
death,  fraught  with  the  grandest  triumph  of  man, 
may  be  regarded  as  a  progressive  work  advancing  by 
successive  steps.  The  first  step  in  the  great  conquest 
is  to  overcome  or  destroy  the  consciousness  of  death ; 
to  establish  the  sure  knowledge  that  ever  in  the  realm 
of  man’s  real  life,  which  is  hid  with  Christ  in  God, 
there  is  no  death.  This  is  to  carry  on  the  work  of  the 
Master,  “Who  hath  abolished  death  and  hath  brought 

life  and  immortality  to  light.” 

91 


92  FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 


The  truth  is  that  the  popular  thoughts  about  death 
are  a  delusion.  As  we  have  indicated  in  reference  to 
overcoming  Fear,  many  live  their  whole  life  in  the 
fear  of  death,  because  they  are  not  looking  at  life 
whole,  they  do  not  see  life  in  the  light  of  the  Eternal 
and  Universal.  Their  minds  are  ever  fastened  on  the 
physical,  the  visible,  the  transitory.  They  identify 
themselves  with  their  bodies  though  the  body  is  but  the 
temporary  instrument  by  which  they  function  for  a 
while  in  the  visible  world,  or  the  temporary  garment, 
as  it  were,  which  they  cast  off  when  they  rise  into 
the  higher  planes  of  being.  Men,  dwelling  consciously 
in  the  Secret  Place  of  the  Most  High,  will  come  to 
stamp  death,  in  any  real  sense,  as  a  lie,  and  glory  in 
the  gift  of  their  Eternal  Life  in  God,  which  they  will 
feel  within  them,  and  which  they  will  know  no 
external  circumstance  can  touch. 

In  this  connection  we  feel  constrained  to  help  to 
bring  life  and  immortality  to  light  in  the  minds  of 
those  who  are  mourning  because  of  the  passing  over 
of  dear  ones.  We  direct  our  message  to  them  on  this 
wise.  We  commend  you  in  our  prayers  to  the  tender 
care  and  unfailing  guidance  of  Him  whose  strength 
is  sufficient  to  sustain  and  uphold  you  through  all  your 
trial.  Seek  in  prayer  to  know  the  infinite  sympathy 
of  the  great  Heart  of  Love  throbbing  at  the  center  of 
the  Universe,  to  enter  into  a  very  real  sense  of  the 
healing  Christ-Presence  and  of  the  reality  of  the 
Spirit’s  power,  which  is  the  renewing  and  sustaining 
power  in  every  need,  and  to  realize  a  deep,  abiding 
consciousness  of  the  boundless  Divine  Love  that 


OVERCOMING  DEATH 


93 

enfolds  you  and  yours,  whether  in  the  body  or  out  of 
the  body.  In  the  sublime  words  of  the  poet, 

“I  know  not  where  His  islands  lift 
Their  fronded  palms  in  air; 

I  only  know  I  cannot  drift 
Beyond  His  love  and  care.” 

Again,  Paul  says,  “I  am  persuaded  that  neither  life 
nor  death  nor  any  other  creature  is  able  to  separate  us 
from  the  Love  of  God  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus.”  All 
things  work  together  for  good  to  them  that  love  God.” 

Our  message  is  one  of  hope,  not  merely  the  hope  of 
reunion  in  some  future  life,  but  one  born  of  the 
promise  of  present  fellowship  with  him  who  has 
passed  beyond  the  veil.  We  are  not  insensible  to 
the  natural  sorrow  and  sense  of  loss  that  comes  with 
the  first  shock  of  the  mysterious  change  and  physical 
disappearance.  We  can  have  only  profound  sympathy 
as  we  realize  how  hard  it  is  to  see  things  as  they 
really  are,  in  their  true  perspective,  when  the  shadow 
falls  with  its  paralizing  effect.  We  realize  fully  the 
difficulty  of  rising  above  the  physical  plane,  to  which 
we  are  attached  by  strong  bonds  in  this  earth  pilgrim¬ 
age.  One  naturally  yearns  for  “the  touch  of  the 
vanished  hand  and  the  sound  of  the  voice  that  is  still.” 
We  feel  that  somehow  God  must  sympathize  with  us 
in  our  struggle  to  overcome  our  blindness  and  to 
penetrate  beyond  the  limitations  of  our  physical  sight. 
We  read  that  “The  Lord  is  nigh  unto  them  that  are 
of  a  broken  heart.”  Again,  he  who  was  called  the 
man  of  sorrows  and  who  was  acquainted  with  grief, 


94  FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 

and  who  reveals  to  us  the  Heart  of  the  Eternal  Father 
says : — “Come  unto  me  all  ye  who  are  heavy  laden, 
and  I  will  refresh  you.”  Yet,  while  realizing  the 
natural  sorrow,  let  us  seek  to  point  the  way,  not  to 
forgetfulness,  nor  simply  to  the  poor  consolation  of 
a  distant  reunion,  but  to  the  radiant  hope  of  intimate 
contact  and  growing  fellowship  here  and  now  in  the 
eternal  life  which  may  be  a  present  experience.  Then, 
out  of  the  yearning  for  the  touch  of  the  vanished  hand 
and  the  sound  of  the  voice  that  is  still,  we  may  learn 
to  realize  the  presence  of  the  unseen  hand  and  to  hear 
with  the  awakened  spiritual  faculties  the  echoes  of  the 
beloved  voice  caught  up  into  the  vibrations  of  the 
higher  planes  of  being. 

First  of  all,  then,  these  are  days  when  you  must 
consciously  keep  close  to  God  in  prayer.  Strive^  to 
come  face  to  face  with  Him,  as  it  were,  in  a  vital 
prayer-life,  in  which  your  prayer  will  not  be  a  mere 
repetition  of  formulas,  but  a  veritable  lifting  up  of 
the  heart  to  God,  a  full  and  glad  surrender  to  his 
eternal  purpose  of  Love,  which  overrules  every  appar 
ent  evil  and  works  for  the  highest  good.  Live  in  this 
higher  prayer,  which  is  silent  conscious  resting  in  the 
strength  of  God,  and  which  will  render  you  “strong  in 
the  Lord  and  in  the  power  of  his  might.”  God  is  your 
strength.  His  love  and  power  enfolds  and  keeps  you 
always.  There  will  unfold  within  you  more  and  more 
of  the  Christ-consciousness— of  that  mind  which  was 
in  Christ-Jesus— which  lifts  one  triumphantly  above 
the  assaults  of  grief  and  fear.  “He  that  dwelleth  in 


OVERCOMING  DEATH 


95 

the  Secret  Place  of  the  Most  High,  shall  abide  under 
the  Shadow  of  the  Almighty. 

The  mystery  sometimes  seems  unfathomable,  and 
yet  the  deeper  our  experience  in  the  valley  of  the 
shadow,  the  nearer  we  seem  to  come  to  the  heart  of 
things  and  the  deeper  becomes  our  realization  of  the 
operation  of  a  perfect  law  of  love  working  toward 
some  great  purpose,  and  then  we  know  surely  that  we 
and  ours  cannot  drift  beyond  His  love  and  care,  even 
in  circumstances  which,  to  human  vision,  often  seem 
so  sad  and  tragic.  Continue  in  prayer,  always  walking 
and  talking  to  God  as  the  dear  Friend  and  Great  Com¬ 
panion,  till  his  Spirit  guides  you  into  all  Truth  and 
your  heart  burns  within  you  as  there  is  borne  in  upon 
your  soul  a  clear  vision  of  the  glorious  truth,  “There 
is  no  death,  there  are  no  dead.”  One  of  the  consola¬ 
tions  of  God  that  will  come  to  you  is  the  sure  knowl¬ 
edge  that  he  is  not  really  dead,  but  living.  Do  not 
for  a  moment  think  of  him  as  dead,  nor  say  that  he 
lies  buried.  Only  the  body  is  laid  away,  very  dear 
because  of  tender  associations,  but  still  only  the  outer 
sheath,  the  temporary  instrument  of  Spirit,  now  cast 
off  like  a  used  garment.  “For  we  know  that  if  our 
earthly  house  of  this  tabernacle  were  dissolved,  we 
have  a  building  of  God,  an  house  not  made  with  hands, 
eternal  in  the  heavens.”  The  scriptural  reference  to 
the  risen  Jesus  has  its  application  to  him  also — “Why 
seek  ye  the  living  among  the  dead,  He  is  not  here,  He 
is  risen.”  He  lives!  He  lives!  He  himself,  the  real 
man,  the  inner  self,  spiritual,  made  in  the  image  of 


96  FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 

God,  cannot  be  touched  at  all.  You  will  recall  how 
Addison  says  of  the  Soul: 

“But  thou  shalt  flourish  in  immortal  youth, 

Unhurt  amid  the  war  of  elements, 

The  wreck  of  matter,  and  the  crush  of  worlds.’' 

There  will  be  stamped  upon  your  inner  consciousness, 
then  the  fact  that  death  is  a  lie,  save  on  the  physical 
plane,  which  is  comparatively  incidental,  in  the  great 
long  drama  of  life.  We  must  learn  to  so  free  our 
minds  from  bondage  to  the  material  and  transitory 
that  we  may  see  life  in  the  light  of  the  Eternal.  His 
real  life  is  hid  with  Christ  in  God.  What  a  comfort 
to  know  that  he  is  beyond  the  reach  of  the  world’s 
strife,  abiding  in  the  Great  Peace,  safe  in  the  embrace 
of  the  everlasting  arms.  A  love  is  sustaining  and 
guiding  him,  that  is  infinitely  greater  even  than  your 
own  deep  love  can  be. 

Indeed,  he  is  gloriously  alive,  his  is  the  life  more 
abundant,  he  rejoices  in  taking  up  life  anew  in  the 
wondrous  land  of  eternal  morning.  It  is  a  life  of 
spiritual  activity  and  progressive  unfoldment.  He  will 
go  on  wonderfully  growing  in  spirit  and  developing 
in  the  graces  he  possessed  here  which  are  akin  to  the 
divine  and  heavenly  glory.  He  goes  from  strength  to 
strength  and  from  glory  to  glory  in  his  progress 
through  the  heavenly  mansions  of  the  Father.  How 
happy  he  must  be  in  his  new  life  of  heightened 
energies  and  richer  relationships.  How  he  must  yearn 
to  have  you  overcome  your  grief  and  rejoice  with 


OVERCOMING  DEATH 


97 


him  in  his  new-found  blessedness,  and  share  the  joy  of 
his  higher  spiritual  consciousness  and  life. 

Again,  in  the  hour  of  high  communion,  there  will 
come  to  you  the  deep  consciousnes  that  in  a  very  real 
sense  he  has  not  been  taken  from  you,  that  only  the 
visible  presence  has  been  removed.  There  can  be  no 
real  separation  of  spirit  from  spirit,  in  spite  of  all 
outward  seeming.  His  life  is  hid  with  Christ  in  God, 
who  is  closer  than  breathing,  nearer  than  hands  and 
feet,  in  whom  we  also  live  and  move  and  have  our 
being.  His  is  not  a  far  country. 

“The  spirit-world  around  this  world  of  sense 
Floats  like  an  atmosphere.” 

“That  true  world  within  the  world  we  see, 
Whereof  our  world  is  but  the  bounding  shore.” 

The  spirit  realm  is  round  about  us  and  in  our  very 
midst,  penetrating  and  encompassing  this  world  of 
sense,  but  we  are  all  so  bound  to  earth  by  the  grip  of 
our  materialism  that  we  are  blind  to  it.  As  we  grow 
in  spiritual  understanding,  we  come  into  closer  con¬ 
scious  touch  with  it  and  mingle  in  its  life.  In  these 
higher  moments,  under  the  Spirit’s  illumination,  our 
inner  eyes  are  opened  to  the  wondrous  vision  of  that 
mystic  glory-land,  and  we  find  that  in  the  great  deep 
within 

“There  is  a  place  where  spirits  blend, 

Where  friend  holds  fellowship  with  friend.” 

In  your  close  touch  with  God  in  the  hour  of  prayer, 
you  will  feel  the  living  touch  of  him  who  stands  in 


98  FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 

His  nearer  presence.  You  will  come,  then,  to  rejoice 
greatly  in  the  wonderful  realization  that  your  dear 
one  has  not  really  been  taken  from  you  at  all,  that 
he  is  yours,  forever  yours,  through  all  Eternity. 
Love  is  a  part,  nay,  more,  the  very  essence,  of  the 
eternal  order,  and  therefore  defies  the  separations 
of  space  and  time.  God  never  takes  from  us  our 

own. 

“Mine  are  they  by  an  ownership, 

Nor  time,  nor  death  can  free; 

For  God  hath  given  to  Love  to  keep 
Its  own  eternally.” 


Likewise  we  can  interpret  John  Burrough  s  verses  to 
apply  here : 

“Nor  time  nor  space  nor  deep  nor  high 

Can  keep  my  own  away  from  me/ 

Therefore,  we  must  try  not  to  live  wholly  in  the  past, 
hopelessly  longing  that  the  old  life  might  be  renewed 
under  the  same  conditions,  but  to  grow  in  the  knowl¬ 
edge  that  even  a  deeper,  closer,  loftier  fellowship  is 
possible  here  and  now,  a  fellowship  that  is  to  be  a 
growing  experience,  inexpressibly  wonderful,  beauti¬ 
ful  and  intimate.  It  may  not  be  accompanied  by  any 
physically  perceptible  phenomena,  but  it  is  none  the 
less  real.  The  old  life  is  not  broken  off,  then,  to  end 
in  a  tragic  void,  but  is  mysteriously  and  wonderfully 
caught  up  into  a  higher  plane.  Let  us  seek  to 
strengthen  the  ties  that  bind  us  to  our  dear  dead, 
and  look  forward  with  a  holy  joy  to  this  ever-deepen- 


OVERCOMING  DEATH 


99 


in g  fellowship  that  is  to  be,  beginning  here  and  now, 
and  finding  its  full  consummation  in  the  joyous  home¬ 
coming  in  the  great  Beyond,  when  we  shall  behold 
them  face  to  face  in  that  glorious  fellowship,  when, 
symbolically  speaking,  we  “drink  anew  of  the  fruit 
of  the  vine”  with  them  and  with  the  Master  in  the 
glory-kingdom  of  our  Father. 

If  these  great  truths  break  in  upon  our  conscious¬ 
ness  with  such  irresistible  force  in  our  more  exalted 
moments  on  the  mountain-top  experiences  of  life,  by 
more  vital  prayer  and  deeper  consecration  we  can 
come  to  live  continually  in  this  higher  consciousness. 
That  was  Jesus'  experience.  In  His  hour  of  trial,  He 
fell  back  on  the  great  unfailing  resource — dynamic 
prayer  with  the  Father.  Let  us,  too,  tap  this  bound¬ 
less  reservoir  of  knowledge  and  power.  Then  shall 
we  cry  out  with  Paul,  in  joy  triumphant — “O  death, 
where  is  thy  sting;  O  grave,  where  is  thy  victory?” 
“Thanks  be  to  God  who  giveth  us  the  victory,  through 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.”  Let  us  rejoice  that  Jesus 
Christ  hath  brought  life  and  immortality  to  light. 
Let  us  realize  deeply  that  “The  things  which  are  seen 
are  temporal,  but  the  things  which  are  not  seen  are 
eternal.” 

Let  us  meditate  deeply,  again  and  again,  on  some  of 
these  great  scriptural  passages  pertaining  to  eternal 
life,  until  the  wondrous  truths  they  hold  sink  deep  into 
our  inner  consciousness  and  our  whole  being  is  thrilled 
with  a  mighty  faith  in  the  reality  of  the  boundless 
love  of  God  that  underlies  “the  maddening  maze  of 
things,”  and  in  the  absolute  deathlessness  of  the  souls 


100  FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 

made  for  eternal  fellowship  with  Him  and  with  each 
other. 

“Beneath  the  Shadow  of  the  Great  Protection, 

The  soul  sits  hushed  and  calm,.  .  . 

Bathed  in  the  peace  of  that  Divine  affection , 

No  fever  heats  of  life,  or  dull  dejection 
Can  work  the  spirit  harm. 

Not  any  power  the  Universe  can  know 
Can  touch  the  spirit  held  with  Christ  in  God, 

For  naught  that  He. has  made,  above,  below, 

Can  part  us  from  His  love. 

Then  let  our  meditation  close  with  the  sublime 
words  of  the  Twenty-third  Psalm— “The  Lord  is  my 
Shepherd’ —until  its  golden  truths  are  burned  into 
our  very  souls,  and  we  feel  within  ourselves  eternal 
life  and  know  ourselves  one  with  God,  the  Universal 
Life,  and  with  those  who  live  in  Him. 

Through  the  strong  prayer  of  faith,  you  will  receive 
a  radiant  vision  of  the  Life  Eternal,  and  God  will 
abundantly  bless  and  keep  you  and  yours,  and  give 
you  that  Great  Peace  of  His,  which  passes  all  under¬ 
standing,  and  which  the  world  with  its  things  seen 
and  changing,  can  neither  give  nor  take  away. 

Not  only  is  it  our  task,  however,  to  make  a  begin¬ 
ning  of  overcoming  death  by  bringing  the  thought  of 
the  immortality  of  the  real  spiritual  Ego  to  light  in 
the  minds  of  men,  but  to  ultimately  abolish  death, 
root  and  branch,  even  upon  the  physical  plane;  to 
literally  “build  eternity  in  time,”  through  the  whole 
range  of  life.  “Impossible,”  cries  the  man  of  sense 
again  and  all  the  “little  judges  that  hearken  not  well 


OVERCOMING  DEATH 


IOI 


nor  see/’  Those  whose  minds  have  run  in  grooves 
and  who  have  not  trained  themselves  to  see  life  whole 
in  all  its  manifold  aspects  seem  uncapable  of  grasping 
such  a  startling  truth  that  seems  to  run  counter  to 
what  they  regard  as  the  inevitable  facts  of  life.  To 
trace  past  aeons  of  our  physical  development,  how¬ 
ever,  even  without  recourse  to  the  deeper  spiritual 
aspects  of  the  question,  together  with  the  aid  of  a 
little  imagination  to  glimpse  the  future  from  the  past, 
would  give  them  a  vision  of  the  wonders  yet  to  be. 
Howbeit,  we  venture  to  say  that  increasing  knowledge 
of  the  laws  of  life,  and  especially  the  full  flowering 
of  that  mighty  Christ-consciousnes  which  we  have 
already  described,  will  eventually  transform  the  inci¬ 
dental  birth-process  called  “death”  into  a  glorious 
transfiguration  and  ultimate  translation.  This  truly 
is  a  marvellous  age,  when  faith  is  prepared  to  chal¬ 
lenge  even  the  inevitability  of  death. 

From  time  out  of  mind,  men  have  dreamed  of  the 
possibility  of  evading  the  experience  of  death  by 
bathing  themselves  in  some  wonderful  fountain  of 
eternal  youth.  Let  us  beware  lest  we  seek  to  over¬ 
throw  the  persistent  dreams  of  men,  though  they  be 
clothed  in  fanciful  symbolism,  for  there  is  always  an 
underlying  truth  in  them.  We  shall  see  later  that 
this  wonderful  fountain  of  youth  is  a  reality,  to  be 
found,  however,  not  in  some  distant  land  but  in  the 
mysterious  regions  within  man  himself.  In  the  first 
place,  it  should  be  pointed  out  that  from  the  point  of 
view  of  natural  science  itself  there  is  an  increasing 
interest  in  the  possibility  of  prolonging  human  life  on 


102  FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 

earth.  It  is  true  that  for  the  most  they  are  plodding 
along  the  good  but  hopelessly  inadequate  and  com¬ 
paratively  superficial  way  of  careful  diet,  ample  rest, 
regular  bathing  and  what  not,  along  external  lines, 
which  may  be  very  helpful  in  contributing  to  the  pro¬ 
longation  of  life  but  nevertheless  fail  utterly  to  pene¬ 
trate  to  the  heart  of  the  secret.  It  is  significant,  how¬ 
ever,  that  scientific  men  are  beginning  to  hold  the 
idea  of  extended  life,  and  even  to  go  so  far  as  to  say, 
in  one  quarter,  that  science  finds  no  real  reason,  on 
general  principles,  why  life  should  not  go  on  indefi¬ 
nitely.  Far  more  significant  and  promising  is  that 
branch  of  the  new  science  of  the  mind  whose  more 
advanced  spokesmen  are  beginning  to  tell  us  that  the 
issues  of  life  and  death  rest  with  the  subconscious 
mind.  There  can  be  very  little  doubt  about  the  fact 
that  we  die  physically  at  seventy-five  or  so  because  the 
idea  of  the  inevitability  of  it  is  registered  in  the  sub¬ 
conscious  through  transmitted  race-thought  and 
through  the  powerful  suggestions  impressed  by  envi¬ 
ronment.  We  know  that  the  body  is  created,  built  up, 
sustained  and  recreated  by  the  Life-Principle  operat¬ 
ing  in  the  subconscious  mind.  We  know  that  every 
idea  given  to  the  subconscious  mind  is  worked  out  by 
it  with  absolute  fidelity,  according  to  the  force  and 
depth  of  the  impression  and  its  relative  strength  as 
compared  with  other  conflicting  suggestions.  If  we 
carry  out  this  line  of  reasoning,  based  on  most  obvious 
fact,  there  is  no  doubt  as  to  the  conclusion  to  which 
it  leads,  and  we  can  readily  see  that  it  may  easily  hold 
the  solution  of  the  problem  of  indefinite  physical  life. 


OVERCOMING  DEATH 


103 


The  subconscious,  given  absolutely  the  idea  of  renew¬ 
ing  the  tissues  indefinitely,  would  go  on  recreating  the 
body  as  it  has  been  doing  for  years,  only  with  the 
present  retarding  influence  of  absolute  faith  in  the 
necessity  of  declining  powers  removed.  Now  these 
retarding  influences,  together  with  the  further  dis¬ 
couragement  of  sickness  brought  on  by  other  negative 
and  destructive  thought-germs,  (materializing  in  the 
visible  germs  of  science,)  prove  too  much  for  the 
subconscious  efforts  despite  its  limitless  possibilities 
for  producing  life,  and  the  needlessly  worn-out  body 
is  discarded.  Even  this  last  resort  of  nature,  however, 
by  no  means  means  death.  Students  of  the  mysteries 
of  life,  as  Paul  of  Tarsus,  know  that  the  physical 
body  is  merely  the  outer  sheath  of  a  series  of  bodies, 
corresponding  with  a  different  plane  of  existence,  each 
subtler  in  its  substance  as  they  approach  the  inner  core 
of  life,  the  constitution  of  which  is  pure  Spirit,  after 
God’s  own  image.  A  physical  body  may  be  material¬ 
ized  again  by  the  inner  body  of  which  it  is  a  counter¬ 
part,  and  start  anew  by  rebirth  into  another  earthly 
career  or  the  life  may  go  on  in  its  orderly  evolution 
on  a  different  plane  of  life,  but  as  for  death,  it  can 
never  taste  of  it  save  in  the  distorted  illusion  of  the 
world-consciousness.  The  Kingdom  of  Eternal  Life 
must  be  made  manifest  upon  earth.  To  this  end,  we 
give  ourselves  to  the  task  of  overcoming  “death.” 

In  this  phase  of  our  studies,  as  in  the  others,  we 
pass  from  the  merely  mental  aspect  of  the  subject  to 
the  spiritual  plane.  We  have  seen  before  that  the 
subconscious,  deep  and  vast  as  it  is  in  comparison  with 


104  FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 


the  conscious  and  objective  life,  does  not  constitute 
the  heart  and  core  of  our  life.  If  in  prayer,  we 
succeed  in  opening  up  the  inmost  depths  of  our  being, 
so  that  the  Christ-Life  that  is  in  us  wells  up  freely 
from  within,  and  the  full  forces  of  the  spiritual  King¬ 
dom  become  operative  in  us,  every  barrier  to  faith 
goes  down  before  its  surging  tides,  every  negative 
and  destructive  idea  is  obliterated,  not  simply  by  the 
more  or  less  effective  ideas  fed  externally  to  the  sub¬ 
conscious,  by  the  uncertain  conscious  mind,  but  by 
direct  perception  of  the  Truth  of  Life  and  Being 
coming  immediately  from  the  Divine  Source.  The 
whole  region  of  the  subconscious  is  cleansed  as  by 
the  Divine  Fire.  The  body  must  needs  then  become 
a  purified  temple  of  the  Christ,  and  eternal  life  will 
be  regnant  from  center  to  circumference,  as  the  vibra¬ 
tions  of  the  whole  being  are  raised  into  tune  with  the 
Infinite  Being. 

Possibly  the  question  has  already  arisen  in  our 
minds  as  to  what  would  eventually  become  of  our 
body,  should  a  sufficiently  powerful  suggestion  be 
registered  in  the  subconscious  to  enable  it  to  live 
indefinitely,  and  would  such  an  indefinite  existence  on 
the  material  plane  be  desirable  or  in  accord  with  the 
divine  plan.  Everything  in  God’s  universe  progresses 
in  an  orderly  manner.  Everywhere  law  prevails. 
When  in  due  course  of  time  the  Ego,  having  gained 
the  experience  and  unfoldment  and  rendered  the 
service  on  the  earth  plane  that  the  law  of  its  life 
determines,  has  arrived  at  the  point  of  spiritual 
mastery  issuing  in  the  complete  spiritualization  of  its 


OVERCOMING  DEATH 


105 


mortal  body,  by  a  gradual  process  of  what  might  be 
called  spiritual  chemistry,  (analogous  to  natural  chem¬ 
ical  action,)  the  energy  of  its  spiritual  forces  would 
dissipate  the  grosser  material  particles  of  the  body 
and  the  Ego  would  begin  to  function  wholly  with  the 
more  etherial  inner  body  upon  a  more  exalted  plane 
of  life.  This  beautiful  translation  has  many  analogies 
in  nature,  is  glimpsed  in  recent  scientific  conclusions 
on  the  electrical  constitution  of  the  human  body,  is 
foreshadowed  in  a  number  of  Old  Testament  accounts 
of  mysterious  passings,  and  is  in  accord  with  the 
principles  of  life  as  revealed,  first  in  the  Master’s 
transfiguration  and  finally  in  his  resurrection  and 
ascension,  which  hold  the  promise  of  our  own  glorious 
destiny. 

“There  is  no  death;  there  are  no  dead.” 

“Tho  I  walk  through  the  valley  of  the  Shadow  of 
death,  I  will  fear  no  evil.” 

My  life  is  hid  with  Christ  in  God. 

“For  we  know  that  if  our  earthly  house  of  this 
tabernacle  were  dissolved,  we  have  a  building  of  God, 
a  house  not  made  with  hands,  eternal  in  the  heavens.” 

“Never  the  spirit  was  born; 

The  spirit  shall  cease  to  be  never; 

Never  was  time  it  was  not; 

End  and  beginning  are  dreams. 

Birthless  and  deathless  and  changeless 

Remaineth  the  spirit  forever; 

Death  hath  not  touched  it  at  all, 

Dead  though  the  house  of  it  seems.” 

— Arnold. 


io6  FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 

“There  is  no  death!  What  seems  so  is 
transition. 

This  life  of  mortal  breath 

Is  but  a  suburb  of  the  life  Elysion, 

Whose  portals  we  call  death.” 

— Longfellow. 

“And  ever  near  us,  though  unseen, 

The  dear  immortal  spirits  tread. 

For  all  the  boundless  universe 
Is  Life.  There  are  no  dead.” 

— Lytton. 

“Dear  Lord,  how  shall  we  know  that  they 
Still  walk  unseen  with  us  and  Thee; 

Nor  sleep,  nor  wander  far  away? 

He  smiled.  ‘Abide  in  Me.’  ” 

— Raymond. 


MEDITATIONS  FOR  OVERCOMING  DEATH 

Ye  shall  know  the  truth  and  the  truth  shall  make 
you  free,  (from  death). 

This  is  the  bread,  (Divine-Consciousness)  which 
cometh  down  from  heaven,  (welleth  up  from  within) 
that  a  man  may  eat,  (feed  upon  mentally  in  the  sub¬ 
conscious)  thereof  and  not  die.  If  any  man  eat  of 
this  bread,  he  shall  live  forever.  “If  a  man  keep  My 
saying,  he  shall  never  see  death.” 

I  am  one  with  the  Eternal  Father-Spirit,  the  Uni¬ 
versal  Life,  for  my  life  is  hid  with  Christ  in  God.  In 
God  I  live  and  move  and  have  my  being. 

Eternal  Life  is  within  me. 

The  Christ  in  me  is  overcoming  death. 


CHAPTER  VIII 


Conclusion 

The  foregoing  considerations  bring  us  to  the  con¬ 
clusion  that  the  faith  which  the  Master  taught  is  a 
living  force,  a  dynamic  consciousness,  developed  and 
released  through  true  prayer,  operating  in  accord  with 
an  eternal  and  undeviating  law,  and  capable  of  com¬ 
pletely  transforming  the  individual,  society,  and  the 
entire  face  of  the  earth.  What  we  call  “The  Faith” 
is,  in  its  pure  form,  simply  the  truth  about  God,  Man, 
and  The  Universe,  in  their  spiritual  essence,  which  the 
development  of  this  higher  faculty  reveals.^  This 
higher  knowledge,  in  turn,  generates  greater  faith  and 
greater  power,  enabling  one  to  advance  still  further 
in  the  transformation  of  himself  and  of  the  world. 
This  influx  of  light  and  power  resulting  from  the 
development  of  the  faith-faculty  is,  of  course,  ever  in 
accord  with  the  revelations  of  the  Master  and  of  the 
great  spiritual  seers  through  whom  the  Christ  has 

revealed  Himself  through  the  ages. 

Man,  attuned  through  faith  to  the  higher  vibrations 
of  God-consciousness,  becomes  a  free  channel  for  the 
flow  of  the  Omnipotent  Power  of  God,  a  center  o 
operation  and  distribution  of  the  divine  energy,  whic 

touches  and  transfigures  man  in  every  phase  of  his 

107 


io8  FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 


being  and  the  world  with  which  his  mind  and  spirit 
are  in  such  intimate  relations.  It  banishes  fear  in 
its  every  form  by  revealing  the  Divine  Presence  and 
the  operations  of  the  universal  law  of  love  and  good. 
It  does  away  with  ignorance  by  opening  the  higher 
faculties  in  man  which  put  him  in  direct  touch  with 
the  Omnicient  Mind  of  God.  It  eliminates  failure  by 
opening  up  the  invisible  channels  of  the  divine  supply 
and  by  effecting  progressive  control  over  the  laws 
governing  “matter.”  It  destroys  carnal  sin  by 
reorientating  the  whole  life  about  the  Christ-center, 
bringing  the  body  under  the  harmonious  control  of 
the  Christ-Spirit  within.  It  abolishes  sickness  by 
giving  the  Christ-Mind  full  sway  through  the  whole 
range  of  the  being,  charging  the  body  with  harmoni¬ 
ous,  high-tension  vibrations  and  tuning  it  to  the  Life 
of  God.  It  destroys  death  by  eliminating  mental,  and 
therefore  physical  obstructions,  permitting  the  free  and 
uninterrupted  flow  of  the  life-forces  of  the  Eternal 
Energy  which  is  the  God  in  whom  we  live  and  move 
and  have  our  being. 

Thus,  we  have  seen  that  faith  is  the  greatest  power 
in  the  universe.  All  obstacles  must  go  down  before 
its  irrisistible  force.  There  is  nothing  that  it  cannot 
accomplish.  It  opens  to  the  inflow  of  the  creative 
energy  of  the  Divine ;  it  enables  us  to  tap  the  infinite 
resources  at  our  command.  It  is  a  dynamic  force 
which  brings  mighty  things  to  pass.  It  is  the  victory 
that  overcomes  the  world.  We  read  of  spiritual 
Supermen  of  old, — “who  through  faith  subdued  king¬ 
doms,  wrought  righteousness,  obtained  promises, 


CONCLUSION 


109 


stopped  the  mouths  of  lions,  quenched  the  violence  of 
the  sword,  out  of  weakness  were  made  strong,”  and 
of  “women  who  received  their  dead  raised  to  life 
again.” 

At  last  the  Truth  emerges  in  new  splendor  to  greet 
the  dawn  of  the  golden  era  of  spiritual  supremacy  and 
dominion.  Let  the  fearless  Friends  of  Truth 
unsheathe  the  Sword  of  the  Spirit,  and  go  forth  to 
glorious  conquest,  until  the  idols  of  materialism  lie 
crumbled  in  the  dust  of  a  forgotten  past,  and  the 
wondrous  image  of  God’s  own  Truth  is  set  up  to 
shine  undimmed  in  all  its  glorious  fulness  upon  the 
eager,  upturned  countenances  and  shining  forms  of 
the  emancipated  sons  and  daughters  of  the  Most 
High. 

We  vision  the  wonderful  and  glorious  day  when 
there  shall  be  no  more  sorrow,  strife,  or  pain;  when 
the  full  flowering  of  faith,  called  by  the  olden  prophets 
the  ‘‘knowledge  of  the  Lord,”  shall  cover  the  earth 
as  the  waters  cover  the  sea;  when  justice  shall  roll 
down  like  waters  and  righteousness  as  a  mighty 
stream ;  and  when,  behold,  there  shall  be  a  new  heaven 
and  a  new  earth,  for  the  former  things  shall  have 
passed  away.  Rejoice,  O  Children  of  the  Eternal, 
for  your  Great  Salvation  draweth  nigh.  Rejoice 
greatly  that  it  is  given  to  you  to  see  the  radiant  dawn 
of  the  age  of  the  Great  Light  and  of  the  Great  Peace, 
and  to  have  a  share  in  the  spiritual  emancipation  and 
wondrous  transfiguration  of  mankind. 

“And  the  work  that  we  have  builded, 


no  FAITH  OVERCOMES  THE  WORLD 

Will  not  perish  with  our  years. 

It  will  last  and  shine  transfigured 
In  the  final  reign  of  Right, 

It  will  merge  into  the  splendors 
Of  the  City  of  the  Light.” 

FINIS. 


I 


> 


DATE  DUE 

GAYLORD 

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